Jurgen Klopp hails Liverpool's 'outstanding' second-half showing in Huddersfield win

Jurgen Klopp hailed the "outstanding" second-half performance of his Liverpool side as they beat Huddersfield 3-0 at Anfield on Saturday.

Huddersfield kept the hosts at bay in the first half with Jonas Lossl saving Mohamed Salah's penalty in the 42nd minute.

However, the floodgates opened after Daniel Sturridge netted five minutes into the second half, with goals from Roberto Firmino and Georginio Wijnaldum following.

Liverpool's superb second 45 saw them move up to sixth in the table, in what was their first Premier League win since September.

"It was easy to fix the mistakes for the second half," Klopp told Sky Sports. "We showed the boys that their positioning needs to be different, and immediately we had the opportunities.

"I don't think the first goal was lucky because we forced it. We were in the right positions and played the right pass.

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"The second goal, usually when you hear Liverpool and goal from a set-piece it's the other way round. But today we scored one.

"Third goal, fantastic. It was nice play from Wijnaldum, so there's a lot of good things today, especially the reaction in the second half, which was outstanding.

"The boys really deserve that. We needed it, and now we have it."

Liverpool took the lead when Sturridge latched onto Tommy Smith's header to net his 100th club career goal.

Firmino and Wijnaldum extended Liverpool's advantage as Huddersfield's defence became stretched, though the visitors offered little by way of attack.

Simon Mignolet did not have a single save to make in the Liverpool goal, bringing up a much-needed clean sheet after their defence made headlines for the wrong reasons last weekend against Tottenham.

Klopp admitted their stuttering start was perhaps down to the desire not to make mistakes, more than it was to push for an opener.

"To get back on track, you have to control the game and that's what we did in the first half," Klopp added.

"It was not the most exciting half of football. For sure we were a little bit stiff, that's true. We were not in the right positions or with enough players in decisive areas.

"We had too many players behind the ball, which showed their readiness to protect, as it was very important for us to not show any weaknesses in defence."

Klopp also praised Ragnar Klavan, who deputised for Dejan Lovren after the Liverpool defender was injured in the warm-up.

"It was not too cool, but at least we had one player in the backhand. It was pretty much the last second with the last ball he played, that's really unlucky and not good for us," Klopp said.

"You saw Ragnar needed a little bit of time, he had five minutes or so to warm up, but then in the second half he was really good."

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