Liverpool’s manager, captain and match-winner were all in agreement after they managed to overcome Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon.
Liverpool picked up a 3-2 win over Forest despite putting in a sloppy performance in defence against the relegation-threatened side. Diogo Jota scored twice and Mohamed Salah once to earn them a much-needed Premier League victory at Anfield.
But it did not come easily, with Neco Williams’ goal following a deflection from Andy Robertson and Morgan Gibbs-White’s volley twice pulling Forest level. Steve Cooper’s side threatened regularly in the second half, with Taiwo Awoniyi sending an overhead kick over the bar and Brennan Johnson hitting the woodwork.
Both of Forest’s goals came from throw-ins and Liverpool’s defence struggled to deal with the tactic. Jordan Henderson was at fault for Gibbs-White’s goal, failing to make the Forest midfielder after some confusion with Darwin Nunez.
That situation and the general difficulty with defending throw-ins was referenced by Jurgen Klopp in his post-match interview. “They made us work hard for that, especially when the ball was out. That's when the game really started,” he said. “The throw-ins created a proper mess for us. You can prepare a lot in football, but for this we weren't prepared well enough. We are prepared now!
“The second goal they scored, if the player isn't directly involved then players need to be aware of the situation to pick up other players. We were not aware enough.
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“We had 86 per cent possession in the first half, which is a really strange thing. It made it difficult. We had to work hard, scoring the first is helpful but then the lesson in throw-ins came. We reacted twice, our goals were super smart. But we could have controlled the game better.”
Henderson made a similar point, admitting the weakness against throw-ins. He said: “Three points is the most important thing. We made it more difficult for ourselves. We could defend the long throw-ins a bit better and conceding two from that is something we can work on for sure. But overall I'm delighted with the reaction to the setbacks and to still get the winner.”
Jota was key to Liverpool’s win, with his two goals making it four in two matches after he netted twice in the 6-1 thrashing of Leeds last time out. The Portuguese forward scored both of his goals from set pieces, but recognized the problem at the other end.
"I think it was really important to win and follow up the last win,” he said. “It was a difficult game like we expected. We had to wait for that goal to arrive and they did come back twice which can happen, but it's something we need to look back at.
"Set pieces are very important and we know that they scored from them too. We need to improve defensively, but offensively we were almost perfect."