Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp praised his team for their hard-fought win over Burnley and was happy with Naby Keita’s performance.
The midfielder was given a rare start after his injury troubles at Anfield and he was excellent, picking up the Man of the Match award too.
James Milner, Roberto Firmino and Xherdan Shaqiri got the goals, and the manager was happy that we came from one goal down to win 3-1.
Klopp was quoted (h/t Express) saying:
“Reacting like we reacted at a tough place like Turf Moor and Burnley, that’s special. It’s really good.
“Millie with a really, really good performance, especially physically, and scored that one.
“Always when Naby had the ball, at least something changed a little bit. We wanted to have positions to involve the players.”
The German claimed that Xherdan Shaqiri had more to his game and needs to make better decisions. The manager added that only Milner and Keita were trying to do something by making runs, while Jordan Henderson should not have to do such things on the pitch.
“Hendo [Jordan Henderson] shouldn’t be involved in that – he had to protect all the runners. So Naby made all the difference in a lot of moments.”
Klopp also added that Keita had the best chance in the first half which was blocked, and there was a great one-two with Mohamed Salah that almost led to a goal.
The German further claimed that he had to shout on his players so that they could use Keita more against the Clarets.
“In the middle, we didn’t use him – I was shouting, ‘We have to use Naby!’ because he was not involved, we played long ball and big switches. Naby was constantly played over. When he was involved, he was really good.”
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Hopefully, Keita continues this sort of form for the rest of the season as he provides us with something different on the pitch.
