Klopp Talk: It Was a Difficult but Good Game

We’re hurtling towards the end of the season, and after a couple of lackluster performances, it’s good to see this Liverpool team eke out the kind of win we’ve started to expect from them. The fact that the win came against Burnley is really just icing on the cake. Jurgen Klopp is very much in agreement on that front.

“It was a good game; a difficult game but a good game,” the boss said after the match. “We all know it is always difficult against Burnley for different reasons – and today there were a few more circumstances together that made it even more difficult. One of them was the early goal we conceded; usually it would have been disallowed if Andre [Marriner] has a better view of it, I don’t know exactly.”

The first goal came from Ashley Westwood in the sixth minute, and while Alisson was definitely impeded (or ‘dragged down by Tarkowski in what was obviously a foul’, if you want to get more technical), Marriner didn’t appear to notice and let the goal stand.

“I saw in the first moment it was a foul and now I have seen pictures you cannot treat the goalie like this, it should not happen, but they scored,” Klopp added, when asked about the foul. “The good thing was it was early, six minutes, so enough time to react, enough time to turn it around and that’s what we did.”

One of the key parts of the tide turning in favour of the Reds was the (admittedly surprising) presence of Adam Lallana. Lallana was a threat to Burnley through the first half, but made all the difference when he set up Mane’s first goal of the day.

“[Adam’s] always good on the ball and all that stuff, he is as well a pretty aggressive boy so the counter-press situation [ahead of Mane’s first goal] is a game-changer,” Klopp said. “It was a brilliant thing in that moment – it didn’t look really promising until Adam jumped in that situation. So well done, well deserved is all the praise for today. I’m really happy for him.”

Liverpool will hopefully keep up their winning ways against Bayern Munich who they meet on Wednesday.