Jurgen Klopp explains how Liverpool learned from their 4-1 defeat to Napoli and did not repeat the same mistakes against a ‘real football-playing side’ and why it’s easier to wait for a VAR call that goes your way.
The Partenopei had won 13 in a row in all competitions, including a 4-1 result against Liverpool at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona back in September.
Leo Ostigard saw his header disallowed for the tightest of offside margins, which is also how Darwin Nunez got the second goal deep into stoppages.
Both Liverpool goals were almost identical, headers from a corner palmed off the line by Alex Meret only to be tapped in from point-blank range by Mohamed Salah and Nunez.
“I would’ve enjoyed the game even without the goals,” Klopp told BT Sport.
“We showed tonight a really good reaction. Being compact makes all the difference, all of a sudden we have the challenges in the right spaces, we are difficult to play against, and really if you see what Napoli are able to do at the moment… it was a really, really good game for us.
“The boys played a good game, a lot of courage, I saw bravery, going into challenges, making a proper fight of it, then two set pieces bring us the three points. Getting 15 points in a Champions League group is absolutely insane.”
Is it fair to say that Liverpool shook off their recent difficulties, including back-to-back Premier League defeats, by getting back to basics?
“That’s fine, I consider that to be a compliment, to be honest. I was very happy with the performance. Recovering the ball quickly after you lose it is important, but there are other situations where they have their build-up, they are a real football-playing side.
“You have to be compact. In the first game against Napoli we were much too wide, had no patience, just tried to push through what we wanted and then didn’t react to what they did. That was much better tonight, I’m really happy.”
The game was dominated by very long waits for VAR, on both the Ostigard disallowed goal and the one Nunez did receive in stoppages.
“I heard it was technical issues. Of course it’s rough, waiting a long time is probably ok when in the end it goes in your direction.”