Jürgen Klopp was happy with Liverpool’s second half comeback during their 2-1 victory over Manchester City out in the United States.
Jürgen Klopp was pleased that Liverpool overcame a 1-0 deficit to beat Manchester City 2-1 in New Jersey, feeling particularly encouraged by his side’s second half performance and the impact of returning first team stars Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah.
The Reds had been delayed in their travels the previous day with the plane ride forcing new signing Naby Keïta to be sidelined due to a “stiff neck” while the squad looked “tired” by the bosses own admission from their sessions on the morning of the game.
“Pre-season is a really strange period. It’s so important,” said the boss, who recognised that Liverpool’s lackadaisical first half performance came down to lack of freshness over anything.
“On the other hand, you constantly play football you don’t want to see because the legs are heavy and it’s really difficult for the boys. You see how they react in a different way to all the sessions we do.
“In the first half.. they were tired kind of. You could see it; no freshness, nothing. Then the problem is, of course, the formation usually is good for playing football but you need depth in your game. We didn’t have that, we didn’t offer it one time.”
Klopp was, however, far happier with the energy displayed in the second half – particularly through attacking duo Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané.
“You saw the difference already when Sadio came on. Now you can prepare direction, you can play balls in behind, which makes life difficult for the opponent,” he explained.
“With this and then all the other changes after 60 minutes, bringing in fresh legs and obviously a lot of desire to play football, we changed the game.”
The boss had already dispelled any worries over lingering shoulder issues for the returning Mohamed Salah before the match and was quick to highlight the Egyptian’s impact during his 30-minute cameo.
“I said before the game, it’s not that he has problems – he has no problems. He only needs to get used to all the different things. We do a lot with the shoulder to strengthen the muscles and all that stuff.
“Usually (in football) you don’t do anything with the shoulder but in rehab you feel this and feel that, and you need to learn that’s normal. He is in that moment but he has absolutely no issues, I was not concerned about it otherwise he wouldn’t have played.”
Salah was introduced just after the hour mark and scored with practically his third touch of the game when he headed in a Camacho cross from the right hand side.
Just minutes later he came close again when he hit the underside of the crossbar after being played through on goal and the initial signs are that the Reds’ star man is hungry to carry on where he left off last season.
Klopp also was full of praise for the rest of his second half XI, especially the younger lads who were heavily involved.
“The midfield with Marko, Pedro and Ben played fantastic. Both full-backs were then really involved in the offensive situations, which we didn’t have too much in the first half.
“Both centre-halves were there. Nat Phillips on this level is surprised by himself, that’s really cool; Raggy did well; and Caoimhin had a nice save. So it was really a nice second half which helped us a lot because we all see it’s still there, it’s all good.”
While many are tipping Liverpool to be Manchester City’s closest rivals for the title this season, Klopp was quick to remind that this is just pre-season and that this result won’t matter much – if at all – come the start of the season proper.
“I’m pretty sure Pep was a little bit angry because he doesn’t like, or he hates (losing), like I do. I was not a bit happy about the Dortmund game, even when there was a lot more good situations than today, especially in the first half.
“If you lose a game, you lose a game. How can you be happy? And if we win a game, that’s cool. That it was against Man City, we lost against Dortmund so what does that mean? We won against City, what does that mean? It’s pre-season, it’s really not important.
“The game for us was very important, but it is not a sign in the direction or whatever. It’s only a game we played and a lot of good moments which we can use and a lot of bad moments we can work on. That’s all.”
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