Under adverse circumstances, Liverpool kept themselves in the Premier League title race at Burnley. Jürgen Klopp was particularly pleased with the winning goalscorer.
Jürgen Klopp is now well acquainted with the treacherous wind that tends to whistle through many a Premier League stadium. When Liverpool took on bottom club Burnley on Sunday, it was clear before the game that the weather would be the topic of conversation later on.
“The wind was crazy, it came from all directions,” Klopp marvelled after his side’s 1-0 win, which saw stationary balls sometimes roll off their spot and corner flags bend almost to the ground. “It was so difficult to defend their high balls.”
Time and again the hosts had got behind Liverpool’s back line like that in the first period and had the opening goal in sight. Instead, Klopp’s side struck just before the break from a Trent Alexander-Arnold corner that Sadio Mané had headed on to Fabinho.
Fabinho scores from a corner – Klopp still sees a “counter-pressing goal “
The Brazilian scored his fifth goal in his last seven competitive games, having managed just one in the remaining 20 of the season. “He probably would have scored a lot more goals for Liverpool by now if I had ordered him into the box on attacking standards,” Klopp said, explaining the defensive midfielder’s sudden spate of goals. “Only last time we did that – and he scores.”
Klopp called the winning goal “great” and, in good humour, even described it as a “counter-pressing goal” because Fabinho’s first attempt had failed to beat goalkeeper Nick Pope, but he was quick to follow up. Thanks to that scene, Liverpool have now won ten of their last 13 league games, four of them most recently in a row.
“Everything was geared towards a stumble” – literally a “banana skin” – “for us today,” Klopp was hugely pleased that none of his players fell down despite some dangerous Burnley finishes and the uncomfortable weather. “We had to work incredibly hard and that’s exactly what the boys did. We got our jerseys dirty.”
The Premier League title race thus remains exciting, at least about as exciting as that of the Bundesliga. Liverpool remain nine points behind leaders Manchester City, who they travel to in early April, with a catch-up game against Leeds in the rearguard. Klopp was less interested in the league position on Sunday night: “We don’t really think about it.”