Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp says his side “really needed that” after their 2-0 win over Southampton on Saturday night.
The Reds kept their slim hopes of a top-four finish alive thanks to goals from Sadio Mané and Thiago Alcântara and a man of the match performance from goalkeeper Alisson Becker.
The win moves Liverpool within six points of fourth-placed Leicester City with a game in hand on The Foxes.
Speaking at his post-match press conference, Klopp was asked about how important the win was and how he feels about Liverpool’s chances of finishing in the top four:
“It was a big one for us obviously tonight, we really needed that. It was a tough one as well. It’s always like this against Southampton, I can’t remember a game against Southampton where it felt like kind of comfortable. Years ago we played a cup game where we won with six but it was before Ralph. They obviously have a very intense style and they ask for everything. We did a really good job and I’m happy about that, we scored the goals. Obviously being 1-0 up is, in the moment for us, not the result where we all feel halfway through – which is good because we should not but we had obviously now twice in a row a similar situation. So, scoring that second goal was obviously a big relief. What that means for our top-four hopes? That they’re still alive. That’s all, nothing else. It’s nothing to do with confidence or whatever. Our situation changed slightly but only for us, for the other teams not too much because they are still in a better position and we know that. The only thing we can do is [keep] winning our games but that’s really tough because we play Manchester United on Thursday and that’s historically not easy – but we will give it a try.”
Klopp was also asked if results are more important than performances at this business end of the season:
“Definitely, but usually, the result is the result of the performance. This was not since I’m in Liverpool the best game we ever played, but it was a game we had to play tonight. I said it a couple of times, we are not in dreamland and say everything has to click again. Again, we didn’t use the first chances, we had really good moments, we had top, top, top-class counter-attacking situations when the last pass was just not there – that can happen obviously. In other moments it’s not that important [but] for us in the moment they hurt. But we scored the first, that’s very important. In the moment when we conceded in the last games the equaliser, [this time] we scored the second and that’s the big difference. Yes, the result is the most important.”
Liverpool travel to play Manchester United this Thursday night in the rearranged Old Trafford fixture.
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