Klopp Talk: “We Can Play Better Football” than in Win Against Palace

A good win, but the manager still thinks there’s more to come.

A win is a win. Liverpool did look nervy at times away to Crystal Palace, but the home side ultimately didn’t create enough good chances and the reds got the job done in South London. The manager Jürgen Klopp was quite honest in his appraisal of the game, being happy with the result but admitting certain things could be better.

“We can play better football”, BBC Sport report Klopp as saying after the game. “It was a really intense first half so it wasn’t easy to make the right decisions. They had their moments. I know we have to play much better but tonight I’m absolutely fine with that”.

“In these moments [near the end of a close game] the fuel is really low and maybe the players need a bit of help from an angry manager - ‘run or I will kill you’ - and they did that with a fantastic counter attack”.

Talking about the inevitable title race conversation, Klopp admitted that he “couldn’t care less really”, going on to say that Liverpool “are not in a race with other Premier League teams each weekend. I was not 100% sure tonight in the first half that we would score. You have to play it as it is and be a real challenger, play ugly, do all that type of stuff.

“Our target is to be a difficult opponent. It is too strong to say anything after two match days. You can discuss whatever you want - just do it without us”.

Ah, the return of Grumpy Klopp in interviews. It’s hard to really argue with his assessment of the game. Liverpool were not at their fluent best tonight, though a few good opportunities on the counter were still carved out, but they worked hard and battled for the three points. The title talk is going to go on, but right now the manager is right: let’s focus on winning the games in front of us and we’ll see where we go.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com