Jurgen Klopp spoke to the press after his side made it five straight wins in a tight affair against Fulham at Anfield, hailing Darwin Nunez‘s effort.
Here are the four key points from the manager as he reflected on his side’s 1-0 victory…
“Really pleased” with the performance
It was far from a perfect display but the manager was happy with the way the side controlled the first period, despite “not finishing the situations off” at times.
The Reds dominated the opening 45 minutes before having to withstand some late pressure to hold on for the result.
He admitted that his side had to battle for the three points in the second half, saying: “If we don’t close the game early then we need to fight until the end.”
Alisson “touched” with clean sheet
Despite winning five consecutive games, the Reds had failed to keep a clean sheet in their five previous outings heading into the clash with Fulham.
Klopp told reporters that his Brazilian goalkeeper was delighted to keep the visitors out after a “really long time” without doing so.
“He was really touched we got a clean sheet tonight, it’s that long ago,” said Klopp.
“He is for sure the most consistent player we have this season.
“That’s actually not bad news, it’s good news, because if we are not in a great shape and the level of goalie drops we would have been completely lost.”
Nunez “like a racehorse”
It was Nunez’s first start in just under a month and while it wasn’t the brightest performance of his Liverpool career so far Klopp was pleased with what he saw.
The boss described the Uruguayan as being like a “racehorse” and said that he provided his team-mates with a “proper option” going forward.
The forward has fallen behind Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz in the attacking pecking order in recent weeks, but the manager appears to be content with Nunez’s showing in a game which featured understandable levels of rustiness.
Salah stays on penalties
Having had his status as the side’s penalty taker brought into question with misses against Bournemouth and Arsenal, the boss revealed that he and Salah had had “grown-up” talks about his responsibilities.
“Obviously he wanted to stay the penalty taker but we had a normal conversation about it,” Klopp told reporters.
“This today was a super penalty, that is really clear, so I think with all the goals Mo scored we cannot just judge it with two missed, go away from it.
“It was a conversation between two grown-up men.”
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