Following their third straight victory, which helped them move up to sixth place in the Premier League, Jurgen Klopp wants Liverpool to “show our real face” going forward.
Wednesday at London Stadium, Liverpool rallied from behind to defeat West Ham 2-1 thanks to goals from Cody Gakpo and Joel Matip, canceling out Lucas Paqueta’s early goal.
West Ham manager David Moyes was enraged when a late handball appeal against Thiago Alcantara in the penalty area was rejected by both the VAR and referee Chris Kavanagh.
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“I liked the performance a lot,” Klopp said at his post-match press conference.
“First half, I think we were exceptional. Controlled the game from the beginning pretty much, made one mistake and bam – 1-0 down.
“Great goal, I have to say – what a screamer – but [we] stayed calm, kept playing, scored our screamer as well and controlled the game.
“Second half I liked as well. We had to really dig in deep then because of the physicality of West Ham, they always have a chance to come back as long as you don’t kill the game – and we didn’t.
“We had massive chances after set-pieces, I have no clue how we didn’t take them – I didn’t understand it but then [we] scored a wonderful goal from a set-piece.
“I heard now about the handball [but] we were on the other side of that.
“I thought he just fell on the ball but I can understand Moysey sees that probably completely different.
“In the end, if you look at the game, I think we are the deserved winner and that’s, for me, very important.
“If we got a point, I’m still happy with the game, not with the result – [but] now I’m happy with both.”
Despite having played two more games than Manchester United in fourth position and one more than Newcastle United in third place, Liverpool’s victory brought them within six points of the top four.
Klopp commented on the fight for a Champions League spot. “I can’t see the race yet, because we are not in position for a race.
” The only thing we can do is win football games, if that puts pressure on other teams that’s not in our hands because we don’t play them [United and Newcastle].
“I want us to finish the season as good as somehow possible.
“I want us to take something out of this season for next year, if that is European competition, great, if not, we have to accept it as well and go from there.
“I want us, at least for a few weeks, [to] show our real face – and not the nice one, the ugly one, the nice one, the ugly one. It’s really tough to do that. So now we did it for kind of three games – three and a half, the second half against Arsenal was brilliant as well.
“We played here plenty of times, it’s always tough.
“Result-wise, it looked better from time to time but the goals we scored were then counter-attacks, stuff like that, quick reacting, all these kind of things.
“Tonight we controlled the game in a way we never did before against West Ham and I really liked that.”
Trent Alexander-Arnold, 24, claimed an assist for Gakpo’s goal and made more passes (62) in the opposing half of the field than any other player on the game, according to Klopp, who had earlier told BT Sport how impressed he was with Alexander-Arnold’s performance in his new hybrid role between right-back and midfield.
When asked about one specific opportunity that ended with Virgil van Dijk narrowly stopping Michail Antonio in the first half, the Liverpool manager responded, “I don’t think Alexander-Arnold’s new role has led to West Ham’s chances down their right side.”
“That had nothing to do with the role of Trent.
“We had three players on the other side in a challenge, so we just don’t win the ball.
“That means we move to the ball side, that is a risk you take, you should win the ball then.
“Three one we don’t win the ball, then the other side is open… it has nothing to do with Trent Alexander-Arnold.”