Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool showed how far they have come under his management in the win over Burnley.
Liverpool edged to a 1-0 victory over relegation-battling Burnley at Turf Moor, claiming all three points thanks to Fabinho’s scrappy first-half goal from a corner.
The wind was a factor as it has been at times throughout Klopp’s reign, such as the 0-0 Merseyside draw that ended up being the last time the Reds failed to win in the 2018/19 Premier League season.
But Liverpool survived a number of scares as Alisson held firm against Wout Weghorst to keep the gap to Manchester City at nine points.
Klopp was happy to see his players learn from past experiences.
An ugly 1-0 win. I’ll take them all day long.
Fist pumps from Klopp
Well played Redmen !!! pic.twitter.com/aCVqVxtA7t
— ZAGKAG (@ZAGKAG1811) February 13, 2022
“I am absolutely delighted with the way we played the circumstances, it was so tricky,” he said, as quoted by the club’s official website.
“Only if you stood on the pitch I think you could really feel the wind to the whole extent, because where we were in front of the stand, it didn’t feel that bad but on the pitch it was ridiculous because it came from all directions.
“But the boys deal with it. Obviously over the years my teams learned to deal with the circumstances and that is not speaking too much about it before the game. We ask ourselves to use it instead of suffering from it, that’s what happens when you are longer here. So, really, a difficult game.
“Today, complete adults’ football was needed and that’s what the boys delivered. I am really happy about that.”
Klopp explained that it also influenced one selection decision, as Luis Diaz was an unused substitute following his bright start for Liverpool after joining from Porto, while Sadio Mane was given the nod after Diogo Jota picked up an injury in training.
“Sad played really, really well,” he noted. “As I said before, it was not the plan to start him today because we know how intense everything was, but Diogo had a dead leg and couldn’t train yesterday, so we started Sadio.
“Luis has adapted really well but this is a completely different game, like a ‘Welcome to the Premier League’, so we didn’t want to try it if we didn’t need it so that’s why we started like we started – and Sad did really well.
“He worked incredibly hard and that’s exactly what we expected.”
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