Jürgen Klopp hailed a ‘really professional’ performance from his players after Liverpool beat Norwich City 3-0 in their opening fixture of the Premier League season on Saturday evening.
The Reds got their 2021-22 campaign off to the best possible start with goals from Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah at Carrow Road.
Jota opened the scoring after 26 minutes of the contest before fine finishes followed from Firmino and Salah in the second
period.
Afterwards Jurgen Klopp had this to say about the victory, Mo Salah’s record breaking goal and the return of Virgil Van Dijk.
On the result being as good as could be hoped for…
Pretty much. What you go for in the start of the season is the result. So, the result depends on the performance obviously. That means we were today absolutely good enough to win the game, and that was the most important thing. It was a very professional performance, what I liked a lot. I said it outside already, I don’t need a 20, 25-minute sensational spell and then losing the game – it makes no sense. You have to be in the game, you have to start the season as we did today – I’m really happy about that. Having an away game against a freshly-promoted team in the fully-packed stadium for the first time, so they celebrate pretty much everything today together or wanted to celebrate, that’s the situation. I’m really, really happy that we played how we played. We can play better, that’s clear.
On three from four forward players getting on the scoresheet…
Absolutely, very good. You know that these kind of things are important, that we don’t even start talking about that. So, I’m really happy about that. Look, you win 3-0 and you know exactly, ‘OK, we have to improve that, we have to improve that, we have to improve that’ – and we can improve that. Some things will be better only because we have a week more time, and some things we have to work on, of course. All good for the moment. It could not be better. With Virgil back after ages, Kostas playing the game, first start, Naby in a really good shape – all this kind of stuff, it’s really important for us and that’s why I’m really happy.
On seeing Van Dijk back on the pitch…
Absolutely. Nobody knows, not even himself, where he is – is he 90 per cent, 95 per cent? Fitness-wise he is 100 per cent, where you can be, otherwise he wouldn’t have played, but from a form point of view, shape or whatever, it was different, so then each game helps. It was really good to see him again being back on the pitch, especially on defensive set-pieces, he looked really, really good. Offensive set-pieces with the two monsters, Joel and Virgil, we were really good. We scored from a second ball, I think Mo’s goal was a brilliant routine, really – getting a second ball in that area and finishing off. So, yes, it’s nice to have him back.
On Salah’s record-breaking goal – the first player in Premier League history to score on five successive opening days…
I would assume he knew about that and wanted to score it! Extra motivation! A really good game. When you know about that and you set up the first two goals, which is really cool, and after he scored he tried to find Sadio twice with a pass, so that was really, really good. But Mo is Mo and when the competition starts, he goes into the next gear because he’s a proper competitive boy. It’s good to have him!
