Jurgen Klopp was impressed by his side’s first ‘ugly’ win of the season as Liverpool came from behind to beat Burnley 2-1 at Anfield on Sunday.
Liverpool hosted Burnley at Anfield on Sunday, looking to avoid a repeat of the result from the reverse fixture earlier in the season when Sean Dyche’s side had beaten the Reds 2-0 at Turf Moor.
But, in a fighting display by Jurgen Klopp’s side, the hosts came from behind to win 2-1 and get within a point of second-placed Tottenham Hotspur.
The win didn’t come easy as Ashley Barnes had put the visitors in the lead in the seventh minute after a lapse in focus by the Liverpool defenders. Thereafter, the chances came few and far between for either side but Georginio Wijnaldum levelled things up from an opportune moment in the dying stages of the first half.
Emre Can then completed the comeback in the early stages of the second half thanks to a sumptuous long range effort that was fired into the bottom right corner. In the aftermath of the match, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp appeared to be satisfied with his side’s first ‘ugly’ win of the season.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Klopp accepted that it wasn’t the “most memorable game in the history of Liverpool”, but it was a result that he was visibly pleased with. He said, “Obviously we all have to get used to it a little bit because it’s the first ‘ugly’ game we’ve won.
“Usually when we were not at our best we’ve lost and in a few parts of the game we weren’t at our best actually. If you’re not at your best it’s a close game and that’s how it was. We were not dominant enough to avoid Burnley’s game, they did what they want to do.”
When quizzed on whether Liverpool must be prepared to win more games the ‘ugly’ way, Klopp said, “Actually I think you need to be ready for both. ‘Ugly’, that’s my English so maybe there are better words for it than this. What I want to say is that it was not our best game.
“But if you want to stay where we are then you need to win football games and we cannot make a choice and say ‘this yes, this no’. It feels really good today that we could do it, even like this.”
Liverpool remained fourth despite the win, but managed to close the gap on Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City to just one point, although both of them have a game in hand on Klopp’s side. The Reds, though, can leapfrog City next week when they face Pep Guardiola’s side at the Etihad Stadium.
