Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea: Jürgen Klopp's reaction
Jürgen Klopp enjoyed the intensity of Liverpool's fiercely competitive 1-1 draw with Chelsea and felt his team could have made more of their numerical advantage in the second half.
The Reds went in at the break level after Mohamed Salah’s penalty in first-half stoppage time equalised Kai Havertz’s headed opener.
The spot-kick was awarded when Chelsea’s Reece James was sent off for handball on the line following a VAR review, and Klopp’s team duly spent the majority of the second 45 on top.
However, the visitors’ resilience earned them a point.
Read Klopp’s update on Roberto Firmino’s injury here and a transcript of his post-match press conference below…
Watch: Extended highlights from Anfield
On whether he enjoyed the quality and the intensity of the game…
I liked the game. Look, a few years ago, we won I think 2-1 or 2-0 against Chelsea and Mo Salah fired the ball in the far corner, which is actually not a chance – a nice goal, but not a chance. Today we had obviously bigger chances in the first half already which we didn’t score off, that means the performance was really good against the strongest Chelsea side for a long, long time. It was always difficult against Chelsea and it’s now difficult against Chelsea, so I was really happy with the first half. And the second half… I’m not somebody who watches football from time to time and thinks, ‘Oh, 11 versus 10, that must be easy.’ I saw five million games and know that is really not a massive advantage, especially against a quality side like Chelsea with the defending skills they have and with now the job they had to do just to defend in and around the box more or less. It was tricky. We could have done better for sure, but it’s early in the season, you need this one moment where you can get through, where you can finish it off. We had our finishes, we had good football moments, we tried everything, we defended their potential counter-attacks most of the time really well. Sometimes we had to run a bit further to catch them again but we did. Chelsea put a proper shift in as well, you have to say, I respect that. So it’s a draw, just take the point and carry on.
On Harvey Elliott’s performance and how he handled the occasion…
Good, it was good. He looked good last week obviously in the game, was good during the training week. We wanted to change a little bit. We wanted to have the dynamic of Hendo in the team, wanted to have Robbo, wanted to have Bobby in between the lines. That all worked out pretty well and then on the right side we didn’t want to change on top of that something. Harvey was from the first day of pre-season with us, pretty much the only midfielder we played so far [who that applies to] apart from Naby and Ox. He looks fit obviously and can just deal with 95 minutes and that’s important for us. It was important today and that is why we started him and that’s why we left him on the pitch.
On the penalty and the red card for James…
I never liked that punishment. If somebody ever listened to me about rule changes or rules then a lot of things would look completely different, but they still look like they look so it’s really a waste of time to talk about it! Yes, it was absolutely harsh. Spoiled the game? Yes, probably. It changed everything. I liked our first half, we were really good, we caused Chelsea real problems. We caused them problems in the second half as well, but it was an incredibly intense game from Chelsea. They did well and that’s why they deserved a point, obviously, but I would have loved to have seen the game in an 11 v 11 situation to take a look who comes through better.
On whether Chelsea are the hardest team to face when they are down to 10 men…
I don’t want to try it against [Manchester] City or [Manchester] United, to be honest. Look how they changed; there are obviously different ways you can adapt to it, to being down to 10 men. They could have changed to four in the back, they could have left four midfielders in front of it and Romelu [Lukaku], but they decided to keep the five and three in front of them, and just Romelu for the counter-attacks and the rest follows when possible. That’s why I said, it’s not a massive advantage – in the area where you score the goals, they had eight players plus a proper goalie, so that is just not easy. You need to force it and, 100 per cent, could we have done better in some situations? Definitely, 100 per cent, but not to forget it is the third matchday, it is Chelsea, they are full of confidence, quality and all that stuff. It was a tough game for both teams – and that’s what I wanted, that it is tough for them as well. With all the things what you could have thought before the game, that Chelsea just runs over us or something like this, that didn’t happen today – not in the first and obviously not in the second, but it was a tough game for both teams. I liked it, it’s rare to get this kind of enjoyment, the intensity both teams put in is really incredible. That’s then, together with the atmosphere our people can create, a top game today and really enjoyable with a little thing that we don’t like too much – that it is only a point. But it’s fine, seven points, that’s the start, the boys go away on international [duty], hopefully come back healthy and then we have to play Leeds. I know already, we will have to run our socks off to get anything because the other team is really intense.