Klopp Praises Flanagan and Lallana After Victory

After Liverpool's stellar game against Manchester City on Wednesday, manager Jürgen Klopp highlighted a few of the night's key performers. The first one to get a mention was Jon Flanagan, who is still working his way back from 20 months out injured. He started the game after missing out on Sunday. About him, Klopp said:

"After 20-something months out he played so smart and so clever.

"In the first half he showed his opponent (Sterling) 'maybe we were friends a few months ago but not for tonight'!

"In the second half he saved energy by not going forward as much and was really clever.

"When we've spoken about Flanno, we talk about 20 months, not about quality. But now we need to see what we can do with him.

"The Premier League is about Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday, Wednesday so we will have to think about this.

"That's why we have to judge the intensity a little bit. That's all."

While, as Klopp said, Flanagan shouldn't be called on to play every game, the fact that he is available as a viable option in our back line will be a great help to the team moving forward this season.

Adam Lallana is another player who had a great night. He scored a fantastic goal in the first half to give Liverpool the lead and worked tirelessly the whole game. It was arguably a man of the match performance, and one that fans have been hoping for from the former Southampton man who also missed much of last season through injury.

Regarding Lallana's goal, Klopp said, "It was a surprise! He doesn't shoot too often, but if you aren't satisfied with your scoring record then the first thing you do is shoot more often! In that situation he'd usually pass, so for him to shoot, it was a surprise. In the first half he was a bit (below his level) but in the second half it looked like the first half was just warming up. He really was outstanding."

But Klopp didn't reserve his praise for those two players alone, as he went on to add, "But there were so many brilliant individual performances. There wasn't a bad player, and that's really good because they all played really good. Emre Can's second game in that role was really good, Hendo's reaction was great and Milly should always play against Manchester City! Kolo's challenge against Aguero, now that was really great."

First of all: Milly. But second, though the season is winding down, Liverpool are still alive in Europe and fighting for a good league position. They could use a few more group performances like this one to end on a positive note.