Jurgen Klopp says he saw something in West Ham United 3-2 Liverpool that pushed his side to another level. The Reds suffered their only defeat of the season in East London.
Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool’s defeat at West Ham United will only help the side. It’s an interesting take, given that’s the Reds only loss this season in all competitions.
But the boss sees it as a positive – or at least, as much of a positive as defeat can be.
“What helped most was the defeat to West Ham,” he told a press conference on Friday. “Humans need a knock sometimes to really understand what’s necessary. We try to avoid it but it helped a lot.
“We gave West Ham too many set-pieces. We conceded from these set-pieces and that happens when you don’t defend as a unit properly. The reason we lost was the defensive part of our game.”
Is Jurgen Klopp right?
It’s hard to argue against this, in truth. Liverpool have played four games since that defeat and won them 4-0, 2-0, 4-0 and 4-1. They’ve had an xG of 9.6 across those fixtures, with just 3.2 against.
They’ve been sensational performances and there certainly is an argument that Liverpool kicked on, as Klopp says. You could easily argue, for instance, that the right mentality wasn’t there yet.
Liverpool crushed Manchester United 5-0 but followed it up with an even 1-1 draw with Brighton. Right now, though, the Reds look as ruthless as ever again.
The win over Everton perhaps showed that best. It was the first away fixture since the West Ham defeat but Liverpool crushed them. Even after the Toffees pulled one back, Klopp had his team recapture control and put the game to bed.
Long may this continue, then. The defeat to West Ham was frustrating but Klopp appears to be right about the positive effect. Liverpool look like champions.
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