Klopp wowed by hot start

JURGEN KLOPP admitted Liverpool’s flying start has surprised him as they won their sixth successive Premier League game to return to the top of the table.

The comfortable 3-0 victory over Southampton at Anfield was wrapped up by halftime on Saturday courtesy of an own goal from Wesley Hoedt, Joel Matip’s header and Mohamed Salah’s simple finish.

The victory marked Liverpool’s best start to a season since they won eight League games in a row in 1990-91.

Klopp’s red-hot men have now won seven successive matches in all competitions this term.

Southampton manager Mark Hughes, now without a League win in 12 visits to Anfield with six different teams, admitted the second half was simply “damage limitation” for the Saints.

And Klopp was happy to welcome another unexpected milestone on his team’s journey.

“I lost seven games in a row once, that felt different! But then we won game number eight 5-0, very cool,” he said.

“Different challenges, different styles of opponent, the boys were there, really in the situation and in the game.”

Klopp was also able to offer good news on the only possible downsides on the day for Liverpool, the halftime removal of Xherdan Shaqiri and the second half substitution of Virgil van Dijk, who left the pitch clutching his ribs.

“I said to Shaq at halftime that I’d never taken a player off at halftime after such an influential half,” Klopp said.

“He was not injured, but I wanted to control the game, go back to our normal formation, and that helped us.”

The Swiss international understood the decision, according to his manager.

“He’s a fantastic boy so there was no problem. I explained it to him, usually I don’t explain substitutions but I thought today it made a bit of sense,” Klopp added.

“It’s just good to have him. You saw the freekick, it was outstanding. What a ball!”

Van Dijk, said Klopp, aggravated bruised ribs which he carried into the PSG game in midweek.

Klopp’s 600th competitive game as a manager saw Liverpool extend an impressive home League record, unbeaten now in 18 games and 17 months at Anfield.

While the Saints enjoyed some promising moments they could not find the cutting edge to worry their opponents.

Hughes thought 3-0 was harsh on his side but added: “We faced a quality side today. We’re not the first and won’t be the last not to cope with their attacking threat.

“We didn’t really give ourselves a chance in the opening period, we were too easy to create chances against though we were unfortunate with the opening goal.” – AFP