Klopp Talk: “It Was a Real Fight”

Liverpool are back! Merseyside derby! ...And it was a snooze fest of a game that ended 0-0.

That’s football for you.

Jürgen Klopp was fairly upbeat about the affair when the Liverpool manager spoke after the game.

“It was a real fight”, Klopp told Sky Sports after the final whistle. “Both teams showed that they understand it’s a derby - even without a crowd. It was intense, physical, all-in.

“The players were really in the game, so that’s good. I really liked our defending.; the high press, midfield press, counter-press good. We won a lot of balls.

“We didn’t have a lot of chances; most of the time we were dominant but they had the biggest chance - that’s how it is. It came out of the blue. We were lucky in that moment but apart from that, we were in control.”

Speaking of the remaining eight fixtures, Klopp added that “of course we want to make more chances; we have to more clear in situations - pass the ball, shoot in the right moment, more crosses. The second half we started to do that better but Everton defended really well; they tried to take care of Sadio and Trent and we were not smart enough to use the space for somebody else. That’s normal when you begin to play again but a lot of things very good. Physically I liked it.

“You saw the derbies we had here before - they were never really better, I have to say! Each team is fighting like crazy so in the end there is not a lot of football. There is space for improvement for us here at Goodison; I like football when it’s slightly different but that’s how it is; we had a proper fight, it was intense and we were ready for that.

“Now I know we are ready because you don’t know 100 per cent if we did enough (during the break), but we can involve fresh legs on Wednesday. So far, so good but I saw Crystal Palace yesterday and they looked like a well-oiled machine. It will be tough.”

Look, Liverpool weren’t quite at it in the first competitive game since March. That happens. Let’s see if they can get back to full sharpness soon enough.