Jurgen Klopp expressed satisfaction with his Liverpool team’s 2-1 win over Fulham in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at Anfield on Wednesday night.
Applauding the mentality of his players, Klopp commended Liverpool’s stars for their comeback, securing the victory after falling behind against Fulham. This success mirrored their previous turnaround against the same opponents in a Premier League encounter just last month.
In this latest triumph, Darwin Nunez, coming off the bench, played a pivotal role by providing assists for goals scored by Curtis Jones and substitute Cody Gakpo.
Reflecting on the game, Klopp was prompt in acknowledging the resilience displayed by his team throughout the campaign, emphasizing the challenges they have faced and overcome in dealing with adversity.
“This mentality,” the Liverpool boss told reporters when asked why his players were able to stage another late fightback despite performing well below par for much of the evening. “But why you [do] create mentality and sometimes not?
“We spoke about that, to turn a game around first and foremost you need quality. To turn a game around you obviously need belief but the main thing that would sum up everything beyond that is mentality. And we had this season where we had to overcome real difficulties very early in the season when nobody knew how we would react to that because you cannot plan it, you cannot train for it, you just have to watch it.
“The boys did it against Bournemouth at home, Newcastle away, so many moments. Tottenham is [a] top example, unfortunately without the result.
“In the situation we are in with a lot of players not in, we don’t go for excuses and stuff like this but it’s obvious we have to change. It is not a problem that the players are not there but rather that patterns you develop over weeks and months are not there, that’s more the problem.”
Analyzing their first leg display, they spent much of the time trailing Marco Silva’s team. Willian surprised the Kop by slotting the ball past Caoimhin Kelleher at the near post in the 19th minute. Klopp remarked on this performance. “First half we were super dominant without outcome, no finishes.
“We played around the formation, we stopped pretty much on the wing, once we crossed it was behind the goal, the next ball got blocked and stuff like this. There was no fluidity, nothing.
“We had to get through the half like this because you see it, but it’s really difficult to get any influence from the outside because it’s Chinese whispers. And in the end, the outcome is not great, right?
“That’s the funny part of it. I tell one, he tells the next, he tells the next and then you don’t see anything anymore. So we tried to get through it with little adjustments.
“Unfortunately we were 1-0 down at half-time, that’s not cool but it can obviously happen. Again, we had to adjust at half-time. It was not that much of a problem because little things help but immediately we started to play better football, but immediately our protection was not better organised anymore and they had the counter-attacks.
“So we had to adjust that as well, did that. Scored the goals and won the game. All good, for now.”
Securing a win at home ensures that the Reds, in their upcoming match at Craven Cottage later this month, can secure a spot in their 14th League Cup final by avoiding defeat. However, Klopp remains cautious, admitting that the Fulham squad caused them real problems.
“It is not over yet, surprisingly,” said Klopp. “I didn’t expect a result tonight to say, ‘you can book the hotel’. Marco will not be overly happy tonight but knows they are still in.
“They caused us real problems, they will cause us there even more problems. Hopefully, we will be better from the start. For tonight, we couldn’t do more than win the game and with the whole story of the game, I’m absolutely happy with the result.”
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