London: Jurgen Klopp praised Liverpool for playing “ugly” to squeeze their way beyond Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park and maintain their winning start to the new season with his opposite number, Roy Hodgson, left seething at the penalty award that left the hosts playing catch-up.
Liverpool, inspired by the excellent Virgil van Dijk, weathered the second-half revival Palace had mustered until being reduced to 10 men and secured a second successive clean sheet to prevail despite offering only glimpses of their attacking best. “You have to play it as it is and be a real challenger, play ugly, do all that type of stuff,” said Klopp of his team’s display. “Our target is to be a difficult opponent. We did that.
“We expected Palace to be strong, and to have that clear approach against us playing a big number of long balls. I saw that in the warm-up from [Wayne] Hennessey practising and thought, wow, this is going to be really difficult. But to see a defender winning almost 100 per cent of the situations clearly without a foul ... Virgil was very important. His performance was really, really good. Quality costs a specific price. Cars are like that. Lots of things are like that. Players too. But nobody thinks about the fee now, which is good. In this market at the moment, he’s at least worth it even if it’s not too cheap.
“We could have done better offensively, and it was not a brilliant football game from us. We don’t have to make it something it was not. But it was a big step. Everyone knows that when we are not brilliant, we usually lose. Today we weren’t brilliant but we won.”
Palace’s stubborn refusal to go quietly after the interval, even after Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s dismissal for a professional foul, offered Hodgson some encouragement. Yet the former Liverpool and England manager was still incensed long after the final whistle by the soft penalty awarded to the visitors for Mamadou Sakho’s challenge on Mohammad Salah near the end of the first half.
“It’s not a penalty,” he said. “I’ve been in football a long time and, if that’s a penalty, then the game has changed beyond all recognition. There’s no way [Sakho] is looking to foul the player. He’s trying to defend.
“There’s no way he’s looking to get contact on the player himself. If people can’t see that, then I will be the pariah who only sees what he wants to see. If all you guys up there see something different, then I will accept that.
“I do not want penalties for my team in that way. I don’t think we gave away a penalty, and I don’t think Liverpool deserved to be leading 1-0 at half-time thanks to that penalty. And, at the end of the game, Van Dijk clears out Max Meyer and we didn’t get a penalty. We were unlucky with referee decisions. It’s a cause for frustration and anger. But if you ask me about the team’s performance, I thought it was very, very good. I’m more interested in the fact we played really well.”
