Top game. Huge game. Huge win.
Jose Mourinho turned up to Anfield and left with nothing. You
love to see it.
Mourinho did his usual approach of, well you know how it goes,
but the Reds did enough to get the job done. A strange deflected
Mohamed Salah goal got Liverpool ahead while Roberto Firmino won it
late in the day. It was most satisfying. Jürgen Klopp seemed to
enjoy himself.
“Top game, top opponent, a super organised opponent”, BBC Sport report the Liverpool manager as saying.
“Slightly more defensive than we would’ve expected but it’s because
of how my boys played.
“It was a really, really good game from us. It’s exactly the way
you have to play. You have chances, you score the goal. Yes, that’s
normal. The counter-attacks were great. A pretty good game, I have
to say.”
When asked about Firmino’s late winner, he added that “I love
talking about Bobby’s goals but it always sounds like we are
shocked! ‘Ohh, Bobby scored!” It’s not that rare that he
scores.
“He’s a top-class player and he scores goals but he has some
things to do for us which sometimes, keep him outside of the box
for us. I couldn’t be more pleased for him. And for us because it
was a top goal and very important.”
Liverpool had a great deal of territorial domination, completing
200 passes in the final third against Spurs’ 19. Klopp explained
that “if you ask me now, I can’t remember the 19. That’s how it is.
But it’s fine. Different approaches, different ways to play.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
“It’s the respect the boys deserve – or earned, that you think
‘OK, sit deep against them like this.’ We have to deal with that.
Of course they had chances, they are a world class team, they are
outstanding.
“They will be top of the table until the end of the season
because they are really good. But to play against them is a proper
challenge and to play like us, is pretty special.”
He insisted his conversation with Mourinho was “not heated at
all. He wasn’t happy because he told me the better team lost – and
I thought he was joking! But he wasn’t. So that’s it.”
In terms of something that actually matters, “Gerard Houllier
would have loved this and I know he would’ve watched this because
he watched all the games and used to send me messages after the
games. I like tonight with the minute of applause announced, how
happy the people looked when they did it because he was such a
nice, warm person. You just think ‘what a guy’.”
That’s that. Liverpool are Liverpool, so Liverpool beat
Tottenham. Liverpool are the best team in the land right now. We go
again.