Jurgen Klopp praised his squad’s resilience on the night, as Liverpool mounted an early comeback to sink Stoke City by a scoreline of 4 goals to 1.
Liverpool faced Stoke City at Anfield on Tuesday night hoping to continue to pile the pressure on blazing table-toppers Chelsea. The match didn’t start well for the Reds, as Klopp saw his side go behind to a Jonathan Walters header.
But Liverpool mounted a comeback, driven by Adam Lallana, who was Liverpool’s best player on the night, to register an easy 4-1 win over the Potters.
Klopp was visibly upbeat at his players’ show of resilience after going down to an early goal. The Liverpool boss hailed the spirit of the squad and the players to come back from the deficit in the post-match press conference.
“Confidence is not a problem of the team at the moment,” he said.
“We know about our quality. In creating our moments, we again struggled a little bit with protection, with our position game. A lot of things we could have done better, but we forced two goals with our quality.”
Klopp was also appreciative of Stoke’s fight and praised Mark Hughes and his side, admitting that at times it was tough to tackle the Potters.
“It was clear Stoke are a good team. When they had the ball it was immediately in the air and Crouch was outstanding. It was really difficult to defend. With the second balls, Joe Allen was brilliant in the beginning. So we had to work really hard,” he said.
Liverpool now go into the weekend with a potential six-pointer on the cards with regard to the title race. They host Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City side, who dismantled Hull City 3-0 to maintain their proximity to the Reds. Guardiola was spotted in the stands on Tuesday night and Klopp was asked by the media if he thought it was slightly surprising.
Klopp responded saying,“ Unusual, I don’t know. I did it a lot in the past, but obviously it’s not too easy anymore because it’s more a signing hour than you can watch a game. Maybe he saw nothing.”
The high confidence levels and morale of the Reds has caught the eye lately, and the resilience that they showed on the night could come in handy against the Citizens. A win against a fellow title rival would be the best possible way to end the year for Liverpool.