Jurgen Klopp picks out two Liverpool players for ‘top’ displays vs Leeds

Jurgen Klopp saluted Diogo Jota after hitting the Liverpool goal trail for the first time in more than a year.

Jota fired a double in the Reds’ 6-1 thrashing of Leeds United at Elland Road on Monday night. The versatile forward hadn’t been on target since a 2-2 draw at Manchester City on 10 April 2022 - although a hamstring injury at the start of this season before sustaining a serious calf problem last October that sidelined him for four months is a big factor behind his drought.

Jota had a difficult opening against Leeds but assisted Mo Salah’s strike for Liverpool’s second goal before bagging twice after the break. Klopp was pleased with the performance of his Reds side as they moved nine points outside the Premier League top four with eight matches remaining.

And he was impressed how the counter-pressing of Curtis Jones and Jordan Henderson set the tempo. Klopp said: “Yeah, [he was] injured too long, same like Lucho [Diaz], and that's obviously tricky. Diogo was involved in a lot of top, top moments, won the ball back and set up Mo's first.

Still, you can see there is space for improvement and he has some moments where you can see the rhythm maybe [is] not 100 per cent. The front three played tonight - and we could've had a completely different front three - the way they defended tonight, that was an important part of it, because they all can play football, but we need to understand it starts there.

“I think the counter-pressing mode was set by Curtis and Hendo, it was absolutely top how they chased pretty much everything on the pitch. That was super-important. I didn't remember a situation where Robbo was in a one-on-one situation or Trent was in a one-on-one situation because we were always moving to the ball. So many important things and I liked it a lot.”