Jurgen Klopp gives honest verdict on Liverpool narrowly beating Watford

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp assesses his side’s hard-fought 2-0 win over Watford in the Premier League

Speaking after his side’s 2-0 win over Watford in the Premier League, as quoted by the club’s official website, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp assessed the victory and praised his goalkeeper Alisson Becker for keeping them in the game in the first half of the match.

Diogo Jota opened the scoring for the Reds, burying home a header that was floated in from the right flank by Joe Gomez, who slotted in for the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold. Fabinho would then dispatch a penalty in the second half to secure all three points at home.

When quizzed about whether last night was as much about the result as the performance, Klopp said that they had to work through the entire game against a very well organised Watford team and admitted that the early goal scored helped them get into a good flow.

“These games can go either way; if you score early, really early, then just get in kind of a flow, it can go in one direction. But it’s not very likely, it’s really unlikely that after the international break you see the best game of the season. So we had to work through this game against a very well-organised Watford side.”

Jurgen Klopp said his Liverpool side had to work hard against a well-organised Watford team at Anfield. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

The win lifted the Merseyside club to the very top of the Premier League table briefly, before Manchester City caught up after beating Burnley 2-0 away from home and ensuring they reclaimed first place.

“Now we can carry on”

Watford could have scored the opening goal themselves after a positive start, with defender Juraj Kucka coming close to scoring but was superbly denied by Alisson. The resultant save saw Liverpool rush back up the field and attack the Hornets’ goal, with Jota drawing first blood instead.

Klopp showered praise on his goalkeeper for his save in the first half which kept them in the game and said that his team kept the game under control, while mentioning that winning the game was all he wanted from his boys, which they delivered.

“We had in the first half obviously the one scary moment when Ali had this incredible save. But we scored our goal, nice, and kept it controlled, which is the most important thing. Scoring the second was obviously kind of a relief. Winning the game is all we wanted, the boys delivered and so now we can carry on.”

Jurgen Klopp praised Alisson Becker for his brilliant save to prevent Watford from scoring the opening goal. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

With every game until the end of the season proving to be crucial for Klopp and his men, the victory against Watford ensured that they kept up their winning streak at home to make sure the Anfield crowd got what they came for.

In what seemed like ages, Premier League action finally returned and Liverpool put on a show to welcome back club football once again after a long pause due to the international break, with several Reds stars in action.

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The win made sure that Klopp kept up the pressure on City at the league table summit, waiting to capitalise if the Manchester club slip up in the coming weeks of domestic action. In fact, the next PL fixture that the 54-year-old head coach needs to prepare for is against the defending champions of England.

The win against the Hornets ensures we have a good platform to build on from here on out, with a crucial quarterfinal game in the Champions League against Benfica coming up next before we take on Pep Guardiola’s men. Hopefully, we win both games to set our sights on winning the quadruple by the summer.