Jurgen Klopp suggested that he “saw a lot of things he wanted to see” as Liverpool returned to winning ways via an impressive 3-1 victory over Tottenham.
Liverpool should have been in front after just two minutes. Sadio Mane was played in behind by Mo Salah but he fired his shot wide.
They were nearly punished for this moments later by Tottenham. The hosts went straight up the other end and Heung-Min Son was handed a big chance by Harry Kane. Son finished the move off as he found the bottom corner but the goal was chalked off for offside.
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Klopp’s side responded well to this reprieve as they were the better side for the rest of the half. They had all of the possession but they struggled to find a breakthrough.
That was until stoppage time as they took a well-deserved lead going into the break. Mane was at the forefront again but he was the provider this time as he put it on a plate for Roberto Firmino. The forward finished calmly from close range to put the Reds in front.
Liverpool doubled their lead just after the restart. Mane’s low shot was palmed away by Hugo Lloris, but it went straight to Trent Alexander Arnold who fired it into the bottom from inside the box.
Tottenham hit back almost instantly, though. The ball was pulled back to the edge for Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. The midfielder hit it sweetly as the ball drifted away from Alisson and into the goal.
Klopp’s men looked to have doubled their lead once again in the 56th minute, however. Salah’s deflected shot went in past Lloris but it was ruled out as Firmino was judged to have handballed it earlier in the move.
This did not matter though as Mane did make it 3-1 in the 65th minute. A mistake from Joe Rodon let him in and the forward finished emphatically into the roof of the net.
It finished 3-1 as Klopp and Liverpool return to the top four. They are now four points behind Man City at the top, but Pep Guardiola’s side have a game in hand.
Speaking with BT Sport post-match, as cited by BBC Sport, Klopp said that his side scored their goals at the “right moments” against Tottenham:
“I am delighted – it was a great game. Super intensity as we predicted. We scored the goals in the right moments, the right people scored the goals, so all good apart from their goal.
“What I saw today it’s not about shape or form it’s about who we are. That was us. Second half especially it was us, it was a massive fight. I don’t remember that Spurs had a lot of the ball but we defended it very well. A good performance and I saw a lot of things I wanted to see.
“You cannot really be sure that you will score goals like this in the second half because they made two changes but offensively we coped well with their formation. We played in between the lines and were so often around the box, the counter press was really good, we were high enough defensively but not crazy high.”