Jurgen Klopp names Liverpool player who was ‘much improved’ and pair who were ‘really good’

Jurgen Klopp saluted a professional Liverpool performance following their victory over Royal Union Saint-Gilloise in the Europa League.

The Reds earned a 2-0 win to maintain their 100% start in Group E - and have a five-point cushion when it comes to qualifying for the next stage of the competition. Ryan Gravenberch netted his first goal since joining Liverpool from Bayern Munich in the 42nd minute before Diogo Jota rounded off the triumph in stoppage-time.

Klopp admitted that Liverpool were not at their best having made nine changes but took the positives including the return of Trent Alexander-Arnold after a hamstring injury. The Reds boss said: “The start and the result and the goals and the chances we created. What I didn’t like was that we lost rhythm after 25 minutes, I don’t know exactly [the time], [I] didn’t do it on the watch, but it’s very difficult to keep the rhythm in a game like this.

“But it’s as important; very important. It’s clear we should’ve scored before, [we] should’ve been 2-0 up when we scored the goal. [We] scored late, that’s fine. Made it vintage, whatever you want to call it, a mature professional performance.

“[We] got the result we wanted and know we can do better. But on top of that a lot of good individual things I saw; good performances. Trent back. [Jarell] Quansah first international game; really good. Kosti [Tsimikas] much improved. Ibou [Konate] long, long, long really good. So, we could share with our situation now because for Sunday we have only from our fantastic five, only three players left for the frontline, so plenty of positives, but yes it could’ve been better as well.

“We should [be] better, play better, use our chances more often if you want to be successful in the competition, that’s clear. But I’m not angry or concerned or whatever it’s just for today it was like that, and we know we have to do better, that’s it.”