Klopp on Joe Gomez: ‘Welcome to adult football’

Ross Gibson

Jurgen Klopp has explained his reasoning behind the decision to omit Simon Mignolet from the Liverpool squad that demolished Arsenal on Sunday.

Mignolet was a surpise exclusion from the squad, but Klopp wants to keep a policy of regular squad rotation throughout the season, hense the decision.

The Reds were in fine attacking form once more as they swept Arsenal away, winning 4-0.

Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Daniel Sturridge were the scorers, showing that Liverpool were blessed with natural finishers throughout their attacking line.

Loris Karius was the man between the sticks, keeping a cleansheet in Mignolet’s absence.

On the Mignolet situation, Klopp said: “One hundred percent Simon plays against City. Intensity for a goalkeeper is different. It is not physical. It is mental.

“We said before the season we wanted to have three really strong goalkeepers. Simon is a clear number one. He won the race in pre-season. You can always rely on him.

“I told him yesterday and it was not that he gave me a hug and said thank you boss I agree with you, but I wanted to do it and give him this rest and have Loris in this game.

“Loris did a lot of good things. He was sometimes too cool but we all need to get used to playing football in close situations. He did a good job and I am happy with this.”

Having progressed into the Champions League Group Stages in mid-week, Klopp was pleased with the way his side coped having played such an important game only a few days earlier.

“We played an outstanding game against Hoffenheim and today we did the next step because we did it again,” he said.

“We need to learn we can do things like this every three or four days. We wanted to show it today and prove it ourselves and be spot on from the first second.

“We wanted to show our ambitions against a very strong side. The performance was perfect and the result is the result of the performance.”

Joe Gomez continued to impress his manager after returning from a long-term injury in the summer, and Klopp was keen to praise the youngster.

“Joe needed time to come back into shape. It was a strong performance.

“I said to him after the game welcome to adult football because that was adult football. Really hard and physical.”