UK Edition
Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool's win over Man City was an 'important statement'
Jurgen Klopp said Liverpool had to make a statement of intent following the sale of Philippe Coutinho. The German felt ending Manchester City’s unbeaten run was an emphatic message.
Klopp said he knew judgement would be made on the validity of his decision to allow the Brazilian to leave, but as the remaining members of the so-called ‘fab four’ scored in the 4-3 win – and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain delivered a majestic performance in Coutinho’s old position – Liverpool showed how they will move on.
“It was the right statement,” said Klopp. “It was not that I said in the meeting before the game ‘by the way it would help a lot if you win and nobody speaks about Philippe Coutinho’.
“I am sure he was jumping in his living room in Barcelona, but of course it is important we showed we can play without him and we did that. It is a very important statement. We got the three points in a very important moment. Now we have a long week to prepare for Swansea.”
Liverpool thrived with their courageous approach, attacking City in a way few sides have tried. Klopp said it was the only way he could be successful.
“You have no alternatives to beat City – you could win the lottery, hope they tackle each other and then you can stand deep in your own box and hope nothing happens but that it is not really likely,” said Klopp.
“Being Liverpool we should not try this way. Then you don’t have a lot of alternatives, you have none. You need to be brave and you need to play football.
“The pressing in the second half, round the goals, was different planet, just outstanding. What do you say? It’s a cool movie. We wanted to win and the boys deserved it.
“I’ve had worse days in my life. I’ve not had many bad ones but few worse than that because I really respect the quality of the opponent.
“You can see what they do, you can see Man City five times a week, you watch it and see it and know you have to avoid this and deny that. It is all possible but quite difficult. You need really a good football team to do that and thank god I have one. That makes sense to try it and we tried very hard today. It was just a joy to watch how both teams threw everything on the pitch. Both teams tried to play football, defended really well without a lot of hard fouls, a few tactical ones, especially from City in a period when we were really on track. It is a nice commercial for Premier Leage football and the whole world was watching. If somebody didn’t watch football until now then they would say, ‘that’s why you watch it all the time’. I’m really happy about it.”
Ending City’s run of 22 Premier League games unbeaten this season was also satisfying.
“I said maybe it is an historical game, maybe the only game they lose in the whole season but I really think we deserved to win,” said Klopp. “We played them really well. We really deserved the win.”
Pep Guardiola charitably congratulated Klopp on the win, and set his sights on an instant recovery when City face Newcastle in their next fixture.
“It is our first defeat. We need to realise where we are and what we did. Football is unpredictable. We lost today against a fantastic team,” said Guardiola.
“Now we have to be sure to win the next one and be fighting to win the Premier League. It is difficult to maintain this way it all the time. Now we must be positive.
“Losing is not good news but all the team lose games. What is important is not to lose again. Now we look to the next one.
“It was a good game. They started well. They were aggressive without the ball and we had problems, then we started to play much better.
“We created chances and we started the second half good until the goal of Firmino. Then we lost our control in the environment of Anfield. We were still fighting and trying and found two goals.”
Guardiola remained non-committal on the prospect of Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez being added to his squad as his exit from The Emirates seems to edge closer.
“You know my answers about that,” he said. “He is an Arsenal player. I talk about the players in my squad now. We have the players we have. I don’t know if we will finish with that. We have four competitions, a lot of games and we are going to try.”