Jurgen Klopp hails ‘frozen goalkeeper’ Adrian for helping Liverpool cling on against Brighton

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David Lynch30 November 2019

Jurgen Klopp believes being forced to bring on a ‘frozen goalkeeper’ only made Liverpool’s hard-fought win over Brighton on Saturday all the more special.

Leading by two goals thanks to Virgil van Dijk’s first-half headed brace, the Reds lost Alisson Becker to a red card in the 76th minute after he handled outside the box.

Adrian San Miguel was subsequently thrown on, but failed to touch the ball before it nestled in the back of his net from a clever Lewis Dunk free-kick.

That goal proved the catalyst for Brighton to dominate the closing stages, though they failed to turn possession into goals as the hosts held out for the win.

Reflecting on another difficult test passed, Klopp said: “Life became more complicated with the red card and the change we had to make.

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“We brought on a frozen goalkeeper, pretty much. Everybody sitting here is probably not warm yet and then you imagine you go on there with shorts and a really thin shirt and some gloves that are not made for keeping you warm.

“Then, some people let the free-kick happen like that - you look a bit silly in that moment, that’s what you have to accept.

“But we kept on fighting and Adrian especially helped us a lot with two really, really good saves and crosses he caught and stuff like this. But with his cold feet he couldn’t kick the ball as far as he wanted.

That kept it a bit interesting but at the end it’s so important that we won the game and that’s what we did, so I’m really pleased about that.

REUTERS

“I am very happy about the effort the boys put in again, I’m really happy and proud about the desire the boys showed. The red card made it a really special win, to be honest.”

Liverpool have now run out as 2-1 victors in six of their 14 Premier League fixtures so far this season.

Things would have been more comfortable in each of those were it not for the Reds’ failure to convert chances when on top, but Klopp insists he is not overly concerned by that bad habit just yet.

He added: “You cannot create better chances than we had in the first half. Then, when you don’t do it, the opponent is in the game and they get a bit of momentum and you lose a bit.

“Would I wish that we still create the same chances and finish them off? Yes. But I’m too long in the business and I know how intense the game is, you have to accept a few things.

“We would have loved we finished one more, two more off and then it looks much more comfortable.

“But that’s our situation, I don’t want to change it. There will be days when we score from situations like that and probably not use our set-pieces, that’s how it is.

“But you have to score goals and we did that often enough now to win the game and that’s good. The rest, I’m not concerned about creating.

PA

“We have so much space for improvement it is incredible, we know that, but the first job we have to do is to win the game and we did that now a couple of times.

“We will not stop working on it, only between Napoli and this game today, we couldn’t work on it. We only recovered and played again.

“Between now and the Everton game we have one day and maybe a morning on Wednesday for maybe one-and-a-half proper sessions.

“That’s what we try to use and hopefully we can do something special.”

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