Jurgen Klopp happy to put style to one side as Liverpool’s set-piece superiority shines through

Jurgen Klopp has admitted Liverpool underperformed against Crystal Palace but says he is content with neglecting style if positive results are forthcoming. 

The Reds once again left it late to snatch three points in the Premier League, with Roberto Firmino netting an 85th-minute winner to seal a 2-1 win over the Eagles.

How good are Liverpool from set-pieces? Five things to know…

• Klopp has forged a reputation for his eye-catching style of football, particularly at Liverpool.
• The Reds are renowned for playing slick, counter-pressing football.
• However, they are also one of the deadliest sides in the Premier League from deadball scenarios.
• Since the start of last season, Liverpool have scored 38 goals from set-pieces in the Premier League (including penalties).
• That is eight more than any other club, while they have also netted more headed goals (27) as well in that time frame.

Sadio Mane broke the deadlock just after the break before Wilfried Zaha equalised with less than 10 minutes on the clock, evoking unwanted memories of previous shortcomings at Selhurst Park.

However, Liverpool dug in deep and were able to breach the Palace goal for a second time with just five minutes to spare after Firmino poked home from a Trent Alexander-Arnold corner.

The goal now means Liverpool have now scored 38 goals from set-pieces in the Premier League (including penalties) since the start of last season, eight more than any other club, and Klopp says he doesn’t mind how the results unfold, just as long as they do.

He explained: “We are not out there to show that we invented football because we didn’t.

“We have a job to do, we have to get results for our colours and that’s what we did again.

“Could we have played better? Yes, but we had players on the pitch that were on Thursday morning still in a plane back from Abu Dhabi, so that’s not too cool.”

Klopp on Liverpool’s chance to equal club record against Brighton

Klopp not fussed about chance to equal Liverpool record

Liverpool will have the chance to equal a club record of 31 successive top-flight games without loss when they host Brighton next week, but Klopp says his focus is far from statistics.

He said: “I have no clue about the record. I don’t know what it means, to be honest, because I should think about it before I answer – so far, I had no time.

“That would mean we need a result next week, so I’m fine with that. We really need a result against Brighton next week but before that we have to play against Napoli and then we will see.

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“We are not out there to break records or whatever. We are really there to get the best results over the full season.

“If on that way we break one or two records, good and we take that of course. But winning the next game is much more important than people saying in 10 or 15 years, ‘That was the record set by this team’.

“We really have a bigger job to do. But how I said, if one depends on the other then we take both.”