Brighton vs Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp delights as his title-chasers get back on the horse

Klopp’s main source of pride yesterday afternoon was the unfussy, unworried way that Liverpool got back up after a week that might have made them start doubting themselves

Jurgen Klopp had to ask whether the phrase worked as well in English as it does in German. “When you fall from a horse,” he said, “the best thing you can do is immediately get back on it.”

But it made perfect sense, and Klopp’s main source of pride yesterday afternoon was the unfussy, unworried way that Liverpool got back up after a week that might have made them start doubting themselves. It was the first serious blow Liverpool have taken all season, losing to Manchester City, losing to Wolves. It could have derailed them, but judging on this game, it has not.

“We did not make a big fuss of it,” Klopp said. “It was two defeats. The City game was an open game, and then you cannot just [change] because you lose to Wolves, after the manager made 10 changes. We never really spoke about the games before. We just concentrated on this game, to take all three points.”

And this is what pleased Klopp the most. This was never going to be the best performance of Liverpool’s season. They were never going to come here and open themselves up against a side desperate for them to do exactly that. So it was not so much the style of the football that thrilled Klopp, but the mental application. This was not as high-profile as last Thursday at the Etihad, a game watched round the world, but it was in its own way just as high profile.

“The performance was good, but it was not the best performance of the season,” Klopp said. “But from a maturity point of view, it was the most mature performance of the season. It’s so important. On a good day, everyone can win football games. On an average day, only a few can win football games. And today was difficult.”

Brighton are not a spectacular side but Klopp pointed to how organised and compact they are, their hard-working three in midfield, their danger on the break, and how Glenn Murray can hold onto the ball for “two hours” when he gets hold of it. Even though Brighton never looked like scoring today, never even having a shot on target, this was their first league game of the season when they did not score here. That is testament to Liverpool’s hard defensive work and their maturity.

“Before today, the headline was ‘be ready’. After, the headline is ‘very mature’,” said Klopp, summing things up himself. “It was obviously a big challenge to stay calm, stay concentrated in every little situation. Their massive threat on the counter-attack. Don’t make any fouls because Brighton is very strong on set pieces. That concentration level is difficult to keep. But the boys did it.”