Klopp on Liverpool's 3-1 win over Wolves
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp reacts to their 3-1 Premier League win over Wolves
Transcript
00:00 [silence]
00:03 - Are we good? - Yeah, we're also good.
00:14 Of course you can.
00:16 I'm 100% sure it's the best question in the whole press conference.
00:21 [laughter]
00:23 - It's on the top, please. - I can't deal with that as well.
00:27 The second best question.
00:30 Welcome, you want your pen back?
00:35 - Thank you. - You're welcome.
00:37 It can only get worse from here.
00:42 It was a great second half for your team, what do you think in a half-time?
00:47 Yeah. Oh, I thought in the first half a couple of times...
00:54 W-T-F.
00:57 So we were not ready in the first half, obviously,
01:05 but Wolves did really well on top of that.
01:08 You could see it in these situations when Neto walks through three players
01:12 and to the box, and we were not there, last step not there.
01:15 I know I work with these boys now, with some of them a few weeks,
01:19 seven, eight, nine weeks, with some longer,
01:21 I know when they can, they are there.
01:24 Today they couldn't in a lot of moments,
01:26 you saw it with Maka, you saw it with other players,
01:29 they didn't have the legs today.
01:31 But I know as well after a long time, if you can get through a first half
01:36 with a reasonable result, not being massively down, you can turn it.
01:44 But the team needed help and thankfully we could deliver the help a little bit
01:49 with a change of system and these kind of things,
01:52 so obviously completely different halves.
01:54 You saw it, pretty much the same players, first half looked a bit rusty,
01:58 and second half, yeah, the boys looked much easier.
02:02 So Wolves played a super first half, we a really bad one,
02:08 and second half we were really good and controlled the game and kept going,
02:12 and scored one and then not directly the second, so we needed a while.
02:16 But we stayed calm, I liked that a lot, there was no rush,
02:19 we didn't kick balls somewhere, we really tried to play around, break lines.
02:25 So, 3-1 is a result I didn't expect after 20 minutes,
02:31 and maybe not in half-time, but during the second half we deserved the result,
02:36 so that's fine.
02:38 When you gave Gerald Quads his first start,
02:41 how did he cope, especially in the first half,
02:44 with the way things were going for some of the rehearsals?
02:46 Yeah, he did well, eh? He did really well, it was really good,
02:50 it was a nice, wonderful experience for him.
02:52 He came on always in very decisive moments,
02:54 it's not that he didn't come on to close games or whatever,
02:58 we had to do something there, and today he was good, I have to say.
03:04 And, yeah, in such a disorganised team like we were in the first half,
03:12 being the one who looks kind of all right is a statement, absolutely.
03:18 So, really happy for him, he's obviously pretty happy in the moment as well,
03:22 but, no, he's a good boy.
03:24 Jürgen, what do you make of Dominic's performance?
03:29 Even in the first half, he's always wanting the forward.
03:32 Yeah, Dom...
03:33 I have to say, he has a massive influence on our game already,
03:39 so it's like he didn't play well in the first half,
03:43 he lost balls and stuff like this.
03:45 We lost so many balls, I think the main situation of Wolves was
03:52 when we gave the ball pretty much in a centre circle away,
03:57 and then they had the counter-attacks, then they had the diagonal balls to Neto,
04:00 obviously we left Joe in a 1v1 situation,
04:02 Neto in a really good first half.
04:06 So those were the moments, and that doesn't help.
04:10 But he stays in the game, that's probably his biggest strength.
04:14 It's not a great game, but he stays in the game.
04:17 In the second half he played Curtis and Dom on a double-six,
04:20 which is a very offensive double-six, but they did really well,
04:26 they did really smart, both of them.
04:28 So, yeah, he turned it into a really good game.
04:33 Jürgen, you talked about Alexis, half-time...
04:37 Oh, he was done, he was done, yes.
04:39 Yellow card and he was exhausted in the first half already,
04:43 so come on, we know now how good Alexis is.
04:45 And in the first half, obviously, decision-making,
04:50 we saw during the week when he had the oxygen mask,
04:55 I'm not too aware of exactly, but I thought a couple of times
04:59 they should have left it a little longer, that it would have helped maybe.
05:04 So it was just tough, and it was pure, just come on, that's it for today.
05:09 And a yellow card, when you are in a game like this,
05:12 it's pretty likely that you come in a challenge a bit too late
05:14 and then you have to second the other one, that's it.
05:17 That's all. He had good moments in the first half,
05:21 but he had some other moments as well, and you could see it.
05:25 I think he was not really disappointed when we took him off,
05:30 I think it was rather a relief.
05:32 What do you think of Mo Salah's performance?
05:38 Too great?
05:40 Absolutely, as I believe he's involved in everything.
05:42 First half wasn't great, but second half, again, different system,
05:48 and he's a key-moment player, he's always there when we need him.
05:53 Like everybody, he stepped really up in the second half, really good.
05:58 Paul, and the last one, Joe.
06:00 Jürgen, it's a 9-1-0 defeat to come,
06:05 after you've fallen behind in games, you've gone on to get nine points from those matches.
06:12 Oh, yeah.
06:14 Do you like that resilience?
06:17 Yeah. Usually you learn things like this a bit later in the season,
06:22 about your team, so we learn it pretty quickly, pretty early.
06:28 Yes, we are still not stable yet, we are not.
06:33 But I think with all the changes we've made now, and again for this game today,
06:40 how can we be stable? I don't ask for that, I ask for trying everything,
06:47 for making next steps and stuff like this,
06:49 and in the first half it was obviously not the case,
06:51 and in the second half then even more so, and that's super helpful.
06:55 Obviously in the P.F. of course, turning games around is helpful,
06:59 whenever it happens in the season, so we should not come that often,
07:06 and that's clear in the situation as well, but for today it's absolutely all right,
07:10 and you have to play as good as you can.
07:14 It looked for me a little bit that we just couldn't play better in the first half,
07:18 and for some reason in the second half.
07:21 I experience that now a couple of times, when you have really tough weeks,
07:25 when players come back, sometimes in the first half -
07:28 I hope it's not always the case, but sometimes it can happen -
07:32 they need a little bit of a shake, the legs off, and we have to work on that,
07:37 that it doesn't happen, because the next international break we play Everton.
07:41 But the reaction was top class.
07:45 Joel, last one.
07:46 Jürgen, obviously it was a struggle for periods,
07:49 you didn't have your captain there or your vice-captain,
07:52 to have someone like Andy Robertson there,
07:54 is it important for a manager to have a senior guy there when things aren't going well?
07:59 He's not the only senior guy we had on the pitch,
08:02 so Ali was there, Mo was there, Joel was there...
08:06 I would say Diogo is a senior guy, we have enough of these guys, so it's all fine.
08:12 But Robbo is an important player to us, if you don't know him, have a look at his stats,
08:18 he plays pretty much all the time, and we don't do that because he's a nice guy.
08:23 Chelsea's boss is in the 200th game today, Curtis 100th game, big number.
08:32 Both players are probably pretty proud of that,
08:36 and then scoring in a game like this is big,
08:41 because it doesn't happen a lot, but a good example for the change between first and second half,
08:48 because obviously Robbo would never have been in a position where he scored a goal,
08:53 in the first half there was no chance.
08:56 We became more flexible and that's very important in football.
08:59 - Thank you, everyone. - Thank you.
09:03 - Please, sir. - Thank you.
09:06 Please, sir.
09:07 - Thank you.
09:08 Thank you.
09:09 Thank you.