Klopp Talk: "Top of the League is Better Than Being Tenth"

That was impressive! Liverpool thumped Watford at Anfield on Saturday to the tune of a 6-1 scoreline - one that could easily have been even more emphatic - and for the first time under manager Jurgen Klopp go top of the league. Recording an impressive 17 shots on target - more than any Premier League side has recorded since at least 2009 - and hitting the woodwork on four occasions, the Reds were in rampant form against what had become a bit of a bogey team for them in recent seasons.

Philippe Coutinho may have run away with the Man of the match award, but Klopp thought others were important contributors as well:

"I don’t think anybody needs me to describe how good he is. He is quite good and he deserves the praise. But actually Roberto Fimino today. I think it should’ve been a close race for man of the match today because he played outstanding. It was really a good performance of the whole team. Sadio did well. Emre did well. We need all these players."

Other than singling out players as more important than others, Klopp refused to be drawn into a discussion about his team’s title chances. When asked how he felt about being first, he had a casual Klopp-ism on hand:

"It’s better than being tenth or whatever. It’s very important to collect the point for the finish and for the final third of the season. We’ve started already collecting points but we need to go on with this and then we will see where we can end.

"I’m really not interested in talking about the title. For me its more important that we look like a team who is able to win football games. On a good day we are really diffcult to play and that is the most important thing we can say.

"It’s not important in this moment where we can end. I know in the past a lot of things have happened here and the story two, three years ago when it was really close and everybody compares. But this is not the team two, three years ago, this is not the team 25 years ago, we’re completely new."