'Didn't help' - Jurgen Klopp makes honest Anfield crowd admission after Liverpool win against Luton

Jurgen Klopp admitted that his Liverpool players had to 'get used' to playing in front of a nervous Anfield crowd against Luton Town - but marvelled at the atmosphere that was created to help pull his side to victory.

The Reds showed fight to battle from behind and earn a 4-1 win and restore a four-point lead at the top of the Premier League table. Liverpool were without 11 players, with Mo Salah among seven regular starters to be absent. What's more, relegation-threatened Luton produced a shock when Chiedozie Ogbene opened the scoring in the 12th minute.

The home side frustratingly could not break down the Hatters before half-time, with loose passes and wasted chances producing groans from supporters. Yet Liverpool improved significantly after the interval. They scored twice in three minutes through Virgil van Dijk and Cody Gakpo to take the lead before Luis Diaz and Harvey Elliott made the triumph more emphatic.

And given the challenges that Liverpool faced heading into the encounter, Klopp was bursting with pride that his troops managed to deliver all three points and put further pressure on Manchester City and Arsenal.

The Liverpool manager said: "Tonight is one of these nights where it is difficult to stop talking about it, to be honest. It just wants to come out of me. I am so happy with the performance, I am so happy with so many things we saw tonight. Before the game, nobody knew how the boys will take on this challenge – because it is a challenge.

"Then we started the game in a good way, I liked it, but then I think we missed firstly a chance from Lucho [Diaz] and they scored then. They had a moment before already, twice we were struggling a bit with their left side. Concede the goal and then you could see immediately we were in a rush from that moment on. Not in build-up, or these kind of things – we still found the right spaces – but in the final third we were in a rush. There were so many finishes and they all didn’t look great, it was not like the goalie had to make a perfect save. I told the boys at half-time, if he wants to keep the ball out of the net he has to fly to the far corner and get there with the fingertips and not just pick them up.

"For that we had to ignore the fact that we were 1-0 down, to ignore the fact we missed chances and to use the things which were good in the first half already – and improve the counter-press. For that we had to play in the right spaces, because counter-press only makes sense if you win the balls back in good areas. That’s what the boys did and the second half was a thunderstorm. Wow! Wow! In the first half, it was like. I know you tend to make headlines with these things, we all had to get used to the crowd as well first half. The boys knew the last passes were not great - if you hear it then on top of that, that doesn’t help. That didn’t help. So we had to make sure that we all start new – and second half, and not that I needed proof, but what this place together with a bunch of fantastic footballers is able to create is so special. Oh my God. This second half for us, we were undeniable. I loved that against a strong opponent."