Klopp picks out one Liverpool star for special praise in Norwich win
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is determined to keep Thiago Alcantara fit after his performance off the bench in the Reds’ 3-1 win over Norwich City on Saturday.
Trailing to Milot Rashica’s deflected strike early in the second half, Liverpool drew level through Sadio Mane’s overhead kick before taking the lead soon after through Mo Salah’s landmark effort.
The Egypt forward became only the 10th man to reach 150 goals in the club’s history and the second fastest (232 matches) after Roger Hunt (226).
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January signing Luis Diaz scored his maiden goal in his fourth appearance to wrap up the win but it was Salah who received the plaudits as Liverpool made it eight successive victories in all competitions to keep the heat up on Premier League leaders Manchester City.
Klopp lauded Salah after the match but he also reserved special praise for subsitute Thiago, who came on with 28 minutes left to help change the game.
“We had moments and then the game can look completely different, then a deflected ball can be pretty decisive, but these boys just don’t give up, we could help from the bench, bringing really good players on and that was like three days ago the game changer,” Klopp told BBC Sport.
“We played really good football and scored wonderful goals. The coaching team, we changed the system as well, go for 4-4-2 and that is necessary in a moment like this that you throw all the knowledge you have together – it gave them a proper challenge to deal with because all of a sudden we were a threat in all moments.
“Thiago with his passing, really fresh, really relaxed, full of confidence, that helped as well. He is a good player, we just have to make sure we can keep him fit.”
Thiago Alcantara. What a footballer. #LFC
— Peter McDowall (@Petermcdowall10) February 19, 2022
Despite the quality of Liverpool’s three goals, which all came in the final 26 minutes, it was far from plain sailing for Klopp’s side and for a while it looked like their hopeful pursuit of City was about to founder.
“No problem with complicated, that makes it so special when you win,” Klopp added.
“We could have scored early with two massive chances from Kostas (Tsimikas) and the header from Virgil (Van Dijk) and then you don’t score but at half-time we did not say we had to change.
“Then we concede that goal and you could see it was a bit hectic, atmosphere was hectic and it makes sense to make early changes to calm it down again and we did it literally with Thiago and a system change to 4-4-2 and you have to finish the situations off.”
