Klopp: “We Deserved to Win”

A crucial win at Goodison Park secured Liverpool’s spot as the Premier League’s Christmas number two at Christmas. A late Sadio Mané goal—the latest winner in Premier League Merseyside derbies—secured all three points for Jürgen Klopp’s visitors.

Everton started well with fury, pressing, and commitment in the first half but ran out of steam at the interval. Liverpool’s control of the game in the second half combined with quality players on the bench all played a role in a late breakthrough. Klopp, though, preached patience after the game.

"I don't think we gave a lot of chances away, In fact I can't remember once chance," Klopp said after maintaining a perfect record in Merseyside derbies. "You need to be ready to respect the opponent, their plan was wild football, they were chasing us.

"We could have done better but it's really difficult to react to this type of play much quicker. We couldn't handle it, you have to let them run and eventually they lose being compact and we could play channel passes.

"We did that much better in the second half, we could have scored earlier but I don't care when, I'll take it. I think we deserved to win.”

Liverpool’s first 1-0 win of 2016 wasn't always impressive, but there has been the feeling this season that Liverpool need to play well to win. There have been recent games where points have been dropped when they shouldn't have, but today was a very good day.