Jürgen Klopp thought Liverpool were 3-1 defeated Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday night, but conceded that the home team worried his team.
The Reds took a two-goal lead at Amex Stadium within eight minutes when Mohamed Salah and Jordan Henderson scored for the champions.
However, the Graham Potter team showed a positive reaction and, after a sustained pressure on the guests’ goal before the break by Leandro Trossards, pulled back a decent finish.
Both teams had chances after the break, but Salah’s second player ended the competition in the 76th minute when he headed out of a corner.
The result brings Liverpool to 92 points for the season so far – and after four games remaining, there’s still a chance to set a new English record.
Read on to see what Klopp told reporters at his post-game press conference …
About the result and performance of his team …
It was a difficult game against a good opponent, a deserved win. Work done, work well done in much of the game, but not all. That’s the way it is. I think we started really, really well, we did very, very well, but in between we left the door a little too wide for Brighton. But only because Brighton was really good; They played really good football, took some risks in the formation. Some of them really threatened counterattacks, so we had to block twice in the box. In the end we conceded a clean sheet. At half-time I said to my boys: “It’s a good game [for] both sides, but they deserve their goal ‘and in the end we had to adjust a few things and do a few things better. We had a better chance of doing more, that was the situation. We had to adjust a little to the positions of the wingers, but it’s difficult. We had a special setup for their setup and that changed immediately the moment they didn’t build up and it didn’t always work perfectly. It worked perfectly for the two goals, but not in other moments.
Whether Liverpool can beat the record of 100 points in one season …
What can I say? When I think of the next four opponents and look at them and think we get 12, 10 or whatever, I never did. I can’t do that. We’re playing against Burnley, which is a machine of results. I could no longer respect what they were doing. They played away, won against West Ham, they will come to us and fight with everything they have – so we have to do that too. Then we play Arsenal at a really good moment. After that, we’re playing against Chelsea at a really good moment. How could I assume that we will get all of these points? I think of the Burnley game from now on and when I think of 92 points I think: “OK, how could we get 97 last year?” It’s incredible – and we always play in the Champions League midweek. That’s incredible. We needed luck in a few moments, like last year against Newcastle with a last minute header from Origi and so on. So it is, but in the first place you have to fight for the three points. We did that again tonight and I like that, I like it very much because that’s the mother and father of every victory that you work really hard for it. The boys did it again and that’s great.
On Brighton and two difficult games against them this season …
It’s just a good football team, what Graham does is just extraordinary. I said him [that] I couldn’t hold back from the game, I wanted to tell him. I don’t like every analysis I would say, but I really liked that analysis because the positioning is good and the way they play is good. We punished them for what they did tonight, but then they adjusted a little. They had a longer structure, long balls to burn. We weren’t ready for the second ball right away and that’s enough, that’s Premier League football. It’s really cool, but usually they do what they do and they are convinced – and I like that very much. Even when we were 2-0, they were still trying to create things like that. At that moment we could have closed the game, to be honest, but they still played soccer and I really liked that. Again, it is extraordinary how Graham builds up the team, I have to say. I like to see them and I know that they will of course stay in the Premier League and if they continue like this they will be a massive threat to many teams I am sure of.
2️⃣5️⃣0️⃣ combined goals in all competitions under Jürgen Klopp! 9️⃣4️⃣ Salah ???? 7️⃣9️⃣ Mane ⚡️ 7️⃣7️⃣ Firmino ???? https://t.co/oQ9nIwPY2e
– LFC (Liverpool FC (Premier League Champions ????)) July 8 21:14
After Salah’s two goals and the combined record of 250 goals by him, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino for Liverpool …
He’s a striker, how can [scoring] no motivation for him? That is clear. He has won the Golden Shoe in the past two years – last year he shared it with Sadio and Aubameyang. It is always important, it is important for Sadio. In the end you can only score goals if you do well, and he did that tonight, it was really good. If you focus too much on goals – which they are not – don’t move enough to be in the right situations. The goals we scored tonight were really good. We had to move a lot to score the goals, so that’s nice. We could have scored more goals, that’s right, but that’s pretty much all. Two hundred and fifty goals are really exceptional – imagine where I would be if these guys didn’t play for me! Impressive! The situation minus 250 goals … great!
About Naby Keita’s appearance …
Absolutely perfect. It’s getting better, step by step and game by game and that’s really cool. Absolutely. I am very happy about it. May it take a long time, let me put it this way. If he and the boys stay fit, everything is fine with the quality they have, the way we play suits them. Tonight, being a player like Naby, but winning those balls … come on, as a coach – and as a coach I am – I couldn’t be happier about these kinds of goals. Everyone is involved and I am really grateful that I saw such things.
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