Jurgen Klopp piles praise on handful of Liverpool stars after win over Wolves

Jurgen Klopp TEAMtalk

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp hailed the performance of substitute Naby Keita after admitting he wasn’t totally happy with his side’s second-half display against Wolves.

Sadio Mane’s 14th goal of the campaign just before half-time made it 18 wins and a draw so far as they re-established their 13-point lead at the top with a 1-0 win over Wolves.

And Klopp claimed Keita, who was brought on for Adam Lallana midway through the second half, made a huge difference for the hosts.

“I wasn’t pleased with how we managed the game in the second half, not always,” said Klopp. “We had bad moments.

“Wolves weren’t attacking as high anymore, we had passing options. There is no chance to recover in a game if you don’t keep the ball. You have to do it when in possession.

“That’s not a calm thing, it’s a very lively thing. It’s about being smart, play against movement and half spaces.

“Naby and later Millie (James Milner) helped immediately. You could see that.

“The other boys, my God. Adam and Gini (Wijnaldum). How they played today effort-wise, miles wise it was really great.

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“But fresh players in the half spaces helped. Then we caused again problems but we didn’t finish it off. It wasn’t a game for two or three goals tonight.

“We just had to fight until the end. I have no problem for that.”

 

 

Klopp admits what his side have done at the midpoint of their season could not be matched by many teams but he expects a real fight for the next 19 matches.

“If it would be easy to win the amount of games we have done then more teams would have done it. It’s not easy,” he said.

“We have to fight with all we have. I couldn’t be more proud of what they did a gain to get that result over the line. It was just impressive. I’m really happy about that.

“But there is a long way to go for all of us. Everybody asks me what it was like in 2019 – my 2019 team was brilliant but that’s not important, we count seasons, not years.

 

 

“The 2019-20 season is not over. We are halfway there. There are 19 games to play. That’s a lot and probably 19 of them will be like this tonight, for different reasons.

“We will be facing teams who will be fighting for the league with all they have, and the fight for the Champions League and Europa League has opened up again.

“We have to be ready. Who cares about points in December? We have just created a basis we can work with from now on.”

VAR dominated the post-match discussion as Mane’s goal was originally ruled out for handball by Adam Lallana by referee Anthony Taylor only him to overturn that after a referral.

Moments later Wolves scored through Pedro Neto only for the equaliser to be chalked off as Jonny’s foot was deemed to be marginally offside.

“I think Nuno wasn’t happy with the VAR procedure. What can we say about the decision? For me, I was surprised when the whistle came for the handball,” added Klopp.

“I thought it was a clear shoulder from the first second. But how can you be sure? So it took a while.

“After three minutes the decision was done. I saw immediately a kind of relief for a second, we are human beings so that’s normal.

“But the next long ball we weren’t there for the second ball, Adam makes a foul. Free-kick, corner, (Wolves) goal.

“It didn’t count obviously but it brought the momentum to their side.

“They were really aggressive and really angry with us as well, we had nothing do with that situation but sometimes that’s how it happens.”

Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo refused to discuss VAR’s impact on the game.

“I am sorry but today I don’t want to speak about VAR, it is not about that. I just don’t want to mention anything about it,” he said.

“The only thing is the decisions are being taken by a referee that is miles away from here and he doesn’t feel the game, he is not at the game.

“I am a coach, I have to think about my own things but what we don’t want is what is happening – Liverpool are a fantastic team, club, stadium and we are celebrating a non-goal. Come on.”