Bournemouth 0-3 Liverpool: Jürgen Klopp’s reaction

Jürgen Klopp saluted a ‘super performance’ after Liverpool beat Bournemouth 3-0 at Vitality Stadium on Saturday.

Goals from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita in the latter stages of the first half were added to by Mohamed Salah’s clinical finish shortly after the restart on the south coast.

A 15th victory from 16 Premier League outings this season lifts the Reds 11 points clear of second-placed Leicester City at the top of the table, with the Foxes in action on Sunday.

The win also extended Liverpool’s club-record unbeaten run in the division to 33 matches.

As well as offering an update on the condition of Dejan Lovren, who was substituted due to injury in the first half, Klopp spoke about the Reds’ display, Salah and clean sheets in his post-match press conference.

On whether it was a ‘perfect’ day other than Lovren’s injury…

It was, 100 per cent. On the other hand side I feel for Eddie because you can lose against us obviously, that can happen, but then losing Ake and [Callum] Wilson [to injury] on a day like this [is difficult]. We scored wonderful goals, had more chances, did really well. We were really uncomfortable to play and from the 3-0 on, we controlled the game absolutely. Nothing really happened anymore, the players didn’t like it too much to be really loud in these moments. I didn’t want to see any unnecessary risks because when you lose the ball it’s not a problem in football but it’s not a time for players to chase constantly, players who run for a counter-attack, I didn’t want that. Maybe it was not the most exciting but it was necessary. Yeah, it was an absolutely super performance, super individual performances and the team performance was just really mature and professional. That’s what we needed today.

On the challenge of maintaining such high standards in the Premier League at such a busy time…

We had so many games which we had to chase until the last second because we were 1-0 down, it was 1-1 or whatever and now when you have this really rare, comfortable situation you should really control the game. We had it a couple of days ago [against Everton] when we were 4-1 up and made it exciting again with a bit of unnecessary lack of concentration I would say, so we had to work much harder than it would have been necessary to at 4-1. But that’s it, so we have to do different things to win football games and today this was the thing we had to do and the boys did it. How I said, wonderful individual performances, the obvious ones like Naby, who was great, Mo, absolutely strong. There were many really, really good players but then especially how we controlled it from midfield with Hendo and Millie, that helped a lot. Joe Gomez after a while out of the centre-half position looked then immediately really natural. All that helped and that’s what you need to win a football game.

On the ‘bonus’ of Salah being back to full fitness…

Absolutely. It’s long ago that he got that knock but you carry things like this with you when have game after game after game. He looks now 100 per cent.

On registering a first clean sheet in 15 games…

I forgot how it feels, to be honest! It’s great, we should have them more often. It was the most-used word in the dressing room by the boys – ‘clean sheet, clean sheet, clean sheet’. Obviously everybody was desperate for that, now we have it so let’s have it more often. The next game where a clean sheet would be useful is already around the corner, against Salzburg on Tuesday. It feels good.

ARIS