Jürgen Klopp met with the media after Liverpool's 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest. Even though he was immensely pleased with the win, the boss also took time to praise Nottingham Forest for their effort. Klopp also discussed the emergence of Diogo Jota as a scoring threat and what else has changed in the club during their recent run of success.
Even though Nottingham Forest is in danger of relegation, that did not stop them from giving the Reds a strong challenge.
“They made us work hard,” Klopp said. “The throw-ins created a proper mess for us. You can prepare a lot in football – and this game was now the preparation for us for the future – but for this kind of thing, obviously, we were not prepared well enough. In most moments we controlled it but in these little moments they just needed a throw-in and everything ended in chaos again and that made life really difficult. We came through it and I am happy, really happy, because we showed a lot of things I wanted to see.”
Scoring 4 goals in 2 games would give anyone the confidence and Jota is certainly flying high right now as the season nears its conclusion.
“Yeah, I think the second goal you really can see what goals do to offensive players,” Klopp said. “They give confidence. It was a super first touch, it didn't look like a massive chance in the first moment when you see three in the box, bam, first touch great and then the second one is just exceptional. He could have scored a third one.”
Liverpool's string of positive results is not the only thing different about the club in recent days. Klopp says he is very pleased with Liverpool's ability to counter-press which has been missing for most of the year.
“Today I saw a lot of top, top, top counter-pressing moments – I loved that – and that's, for us, super-important,” Klopp said “And yes, that changed. I think we are much clearer again in that department. We have to prove in four days already again but it feels, for us at least, that it changed.”
You can see from Liverpool's play on the pitch that they are finally playing the way Klopp had envisioned all season long. That has drawn a lot of high praise from the boss in his press conferences. It may not be enough to claim a spot in European competition next year (Klopp mentioned building for the future), but it's always nice to finish well.
