Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp feels his side is a bit of a victim of their style points success. The German said, following the Reds’ gritty 2-1 home win over Tottenham Hotspur today that the victory was “slightly ugly,” and that people have come to expect more entertainment value of Liverpool FC, given the reputation for exciting play that they have developed in recent years.
Still, a win in the Premier League’s biggest match of the weekend puts them back atop the table over Manchester City by two points, who currently have a game in hand on the Reds.
“There are 500 ways to win a football game, today was slightly ugly. That’s how it is, who cares at the end,” Klopp said in postgame.
“That’s the situation- it feels like we always have to apologize a little bit that because of the football last season and stuff like that, because people always want the 100 percent package.”
The match looked to be destined to end in stalemate, until a header from Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah was badly mishandled by Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, leading the ball to roll in after ricocheting off Tottenham defender Toby Alderweireld.
It’s ugly, but it all counts the same, and sometimes, it is just better to be lucky than good.
“We had to find a way to win football games much more often than in the past. So until now it kind of worked. It’s all good,” Klopp continued.
“The boys work hard and if we would be first in the table after the last match day it would be a championship of will, that’s how it is.”
Jurgen Klopp was extremely animated, brimming with high energy positivity, even by his standards, after the match. Klopp and Liverpool will next take on Southampton in league play on Friday night.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.