In the 16th round of the Premier League, Liverpool defeated Crystal Palace 2-1. Liverpool coach Klopp attended the press conference after the game.
Q: Regarding the team’s performance and results.
Klopp: At this moment, I am a very happy coach, but I know we are also very lucky. If you only win the good games, you’re not going to be successful, that’s just the way it is. Obviously we didn’t play very well today, the first 76 minutes were terrible. The tempo of our game really changed: we didn’t accelerate, we couldn’t take chances, I don’t know how often we were offside, it was terrible. There were always signs of us being a little too passive, when one guy passed the ball and the other guy was offside, it didn’t make sense. At the beginning the opponent was not very confident and not ready, but we also gave them opportunities, we made mistakes and then conceded the ball at the wrong moment.
They could have gotten a penalty kick in the first half, which was a foul committed by Hang Endo. Then when the opponent got a penalty kick, we conceded the ball. It seemed that we were the team that needed penalty kicks more today. The most important thing later was that the opponent got a red card and after that we scored. That’s why we were lucky, but our performance from 76 to 105 minutes was very good because we all know that the opponent responded with 10 men. , you will encounter more problems than you do today.
We really turned the game around and the substitutes were very influential and played a huge role. That’s where we are this season, the bench can really make a big difference, but if Elliott doesn’t score we’re a draw and if Salah doesn’t score we lose. I knew things like this were going to happen, but the performance in the last 15-20 minutes, we deserved this win. But before 76 minutes, we deserved nothing.
Q: As the coach of Liverpool, your team has scored 16 stoppage-time wins.
Klopp: The game is getting easier because we played for 115 minutes! We have plenty of time. To be honest, I don’t know if that’s a great number, and I’m certainly okay with that. I love this team and I’m very optimistic about its development, but I know we still need to do better. Can we now say that our mentality after 76 minutes was better than before? I know it’s tough, guys play a lot, and sometimes their own inner enemies are harder to deal with than outsiders, and I saw a lot of guys struggling today, and like I said, you can make a difference with the substitutions, But we shouldn’t have to encounter this situation very often.
Q: About Salah’s 200th goal for the club.
Klopp: It’s impressive, we’ve had his 200-goal shirt for two weeks and now we can finally give it to him. To be honest, this is pretty much the best scoring moment ever, and it’s an incredible number for a player who is super, super, super special. I don’t know how many times he saved us at critical moments. When I gave him the jersey with 200 on the back, the cheers in the dressing room were so loud that Salah was asked to give a speech. As for whether there will be a speech, you have to ask him, because I am still busy with press conferences. It’s really special and I’m happy for him, 199 goals is different from 198 goals, so now we have to work hard for his next 100 goals.