Jurgen Klopp was happy with “the start and the result” as his Liverpool team enjoyed a 2-0 win over Union Saint-Gilloise in their Europa League group stage match at Anfield on Thursday night.
Following his team’s first defeat of the season against Tottenham at the weekend, in which Liverpool controversially had two players sent off, were denied a goal by a VAR mistake, and conceded a last minute own goal, the German was glad to get back to winning ways.
“(I liked) the start and the result,” Klopp explained, after his team made it two from two in Group E of the Europa League. “The goals, the chances we created. What I didn’t like is we lost rhythm after 25 minutes.
“It’s very difficult to keep rhythm in games like this but it’s important. We should have scored earlier but got the second in stoppage time.
“We should use our chances better more often if we want to be successful in competitions but I’m not angry or concerned, it’s just how it is. We know we have to do better.
“It was a mature professional performance, we got the result we wanted but know we can do better.”
Diogo Jota, one of the players sent off against Spurs, added the second goal late on. Klopp however rubbished any suggestion it was a necessary boost to help him get over the weekend’s disappointment:
“How should he deal with it? I knew it would be difficult. That (controversial defeat to Tottenham) is long ago and we are over that and Diogo is over it as well. We are not children.
“From a focus point of view, it was not a problem to focus on the game, in the game it was a problem to keep being focused because that was how it looked a little bit.
“We got a bit sluggish, I didn’t like that too much but that was nothing to do with the last game or the last week. That’s the challenge in football any way.”
As for the first goalscorer, Ryan Gravenberch opened his account for the club with a tap in after a goalkeeping error, and the summer signing from Bayern Munich impressed his manager with a lively performance:
“It is really obvious how good he is, the talent he is. He is enjoying the situation and it is very important the confidence back, that is really good to see.
“We thought he might be able to play 90 (minutes), we wanted to give him 90 but we saw he dropped a bit so that’s why we took him off.”
Meanwhile Union coach Alexander Blessin reflected on a competitive display from his team:
“In the end I’m proud of the team, but we saw the strength of Liverpool,” he said. “I had the feeling that the game changed (after Liverpool’s start) and in those moments you need it to go your way.”
