Jurgen Klopp on lucky win over Newcastle United – One of the best nights we ever had

Jurgen Klopp was a happy man…after 98 minutes!

The preceding 97 minutes he cut a frustrated figure on the touchline as his team looked to be making it only on win in their opening five Premier League matches.

A ‘little’ bit of a contrast to the end of last season when the final 18 Liverpool Premier League games produced an amazing 16 wins and two draws (against Man City and Spurs).

Considering Jurgen Klopp and his players still didn’t win the title despite that amazing run, then you can maybe understand just how demoralised he has felt this season with draws against Palace and Fulham plus a feeble 2-1 defeat to a still pretty poor Man Utd. It is an absolute fact that the more you get used to winning, the tougher it is to take if you then start…not winning.

Last season saw Man Utd lucky to get away with 4-0 and 5-0 defeats away and at home against Liverpool, it could have been so much worse for the Mancs in those matches.

As for Jurgen Klopp, arguably the highlight for him this season (even more so than a walkover against Bournemouth) before Wednesday night at Anfield, was the fact that Newcastle United managed to take two points off Man City, who are looking even better this season with Haaland up front.

Jurgen Klopp could (and should…) have been sitting this Thursday morning with only six points from the opening five matches, no wonder after the last gasp Carvalho winner in the 98th minute he declared ‘A massive boost, from a rather frustrating night in a lot of moments to one of the best nights we ever had.’

‘One of the best nights we ever had’ is a pretty big statement considering what Jurgen Klopp has experienced these past seven years with Liverpool.

Newcastle United are now becoming an irritant for the self-appointed elite and they don’t like it, the days of NUFC simply handing over the points pre-match and lying down are now hopefully well behind us.

Jurgen Klopp will next (unless a cup draw) face this new Newcastle United in February 2023 at St James’ Park and NUFC fans wondering just what kind of match that might turn out to be, especially if the likes of ASM, Bruno, Botman and Wilson are on the pitch with Alexander Isak…

Hopefully after that SJP match, Jurgen Klopp won’t be talking about it having been one of the ‘best’ days / nights he has ever had.

Jurgen Klopp reflecting on Liverpool 2 Newcastle 1:

“During the game we should have played more football.

“We told the boys in the first half, always when we played football it looked really good, we were dangerous, that was fine.

“Newcastle did really well how they put us under pressure; they had to invest a lot and I think we could see it was really a lot in the last 20, 25 minutes when they started struggling a little bit with the intensity. But we should have done better.

“We told the boys at half-time that even before we were 1-0 down, it looked already a little bit desperate, there’s no need for that.

“We were forcing it too early, we played too many long balls without a real idea behind. We play these balls – Virg to Mo, for example. That’s absolutely fine, they helped us a lot of times. But it’s not always the case that Mo can just get them down and these kind of things. We need to prepare these situations better.

“Again, being 1-0 down is obviously not cool but it was the least of my problems in half-time. So, we showed the boys: if we do specific stuff, play the extra pass then we can cause them problems because they took some risk in their defending, how they moved to one side. And when we were always left then it really put us under pressure there; if we could get out there then the spaces were immediately there.

“So we scored the equaliser and then it was just a difficult game to play because we didn’t play a lot. All of your colleagues asked me now about it, that’s why I mention it, everybody asked me about it – it was just interrupted constantly for some reason and that doesn’t give you the momentum. There was no chance to gain any kind of momentum.

“In the end, I was really happy in the moment when we got this last corner in the 98th minute. What Mo and Fabio made then of it was obviously absolutely outstanding, a wonderful goal.

“A perfect moment; that we scored it after 98 minutes, I thought, is the perfect response to everything what happened during the game.

“A massive boost, from a rather frustrating night in a lot of moments to one of the best nights we ever had.

“That’s how football is.

“Of course it gives a boost but we sleep now twice and then we play Everton so we have to make sure we use these two days really well.”

Stats from BBC Sport:

Liverpool 2 Newcastle 1 – Wednesday 31 August 8pm

Goals:

Newcastle:

Isak 38

Liverpool:

Firmino 61, Carvalho 90+8

(Half-time stats in brackets)

Possession was Liverpool 72% (73%) Newcastle 28% (27%)

Total shots were Liverpool 23 (5) Newcastle 5 (4)

Shots on target were Liverpool 6 (0) Newcastle 2 (2)

Corners were Liverpool 13 (8) Newcastle 0 (0)

Referee: Andre Marriner

Newcastle United:

Pope, Trippier, Lascelles, Burn, Targett, Sean Longstaff, Willock, Joelinton, Almiron (Anderson 86), Fraser (Murphy 64), Isak (Wood 64)

Unused Subs:

Darlow, Botman, Schar, Ritchie, Lewis, Manquillo

(Eddie Howe feeling the pain…and the pride after ‘heartbreaking’ Anfield defeat – Read HERE)

(3 Positives and 3 Negatives from Liverpool 2 Newcastle 1 match – Read HERE)

(Bruno Guimaraes speaks for us all after Liverpool 2 Newcastle 1 – Read HERE)

(Liverpool 2 Newcastle 1 – The three big points that I’m taking from the match – Read HERE)

(Liverpool 2 Newcastle 1 – Match ratings and comments on all the NUFC players – Read HERE)

(Liverpool 2 Newcastle 1 – The instant NUFC fan / writer reaction – Read HERE)