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Jurgen Klopp hails 'machine' Sadio Mane after he makes Liverpool return

Liverpool's German manager Jurgen Klopp reacts after winning the English Premier League football match between West Ham United and Liverpool at The London
Image: Jurgen Klopp saw his side beat West Ham 4-1 at the London Stadium

Jurgen Klopp labelled Sadio Mane "a machine" after he made his comeback from injury in a 4-1 win over West Ham on Saturday.

Mohamed Salah scored twice for the Reds and Joel Matip and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also netted at the London Stadium.

Mane was a surprise inclusion in the starting line-up having made a quicker-than-expected recovery from a hamstring problem.

Liverpool's Senegalese midfielder Sadio Mane
Image: Sadio Mane made his Liverpool return against West Ham

Klopp said: "I decided after just one training session to bring Sadio in from the beginning. I've never done that before, but obviously it was not the worse idea I've ever had. Sadio is a naturally fit player, he is a machine.

"The first goal was a fantastic counter-attack, the second from a corner and that's two goals from set-plays in a week. We've had that before - but usually from the other team.

"Our response to their goal was outstanding, Oxlade-Chamberlain used the chance, and then brilliant play for the fourth.

"Games sometimes are not like this. Two weeks ago at Wembley I felt quite different and we have responded really well. We wanted to strike back and we have with really good results."

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Highlights: West Ham 1-4 Liverpool

The win is Liverpool's third in a row in all competitions and sees them close the gap on the top five in the Premier League, all of whom play on Sunday.

Klopp revealed how Liverpool had hardly practised the 4-4-2 formation that they deployed against West Ham.

"We changed the system and yesterday was the first time we did it, 4-4-2, which looked maybe from the beginning like a very offensive line-up, we had a different idea - we wanted to defend deeper, more compact and using the space which we had for the counter-attacks," he said.

"We will never know how it would have been if we don't score the first one, I think it was kind of an open game up until then. We had to get used to it a little bit, it was difficult for the boys to wait a little bit more for the challenge than jump always."

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