Jurgen Klopp praised the contribution of his bench after they helped propel Liverpool to another derby triumph and maintain their Premier League title challenge.
Luis Diaz and Divock Origi were introduced on the hour with the Reds struggling to break down Everton in the 240th meeting between the sides at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
Within two minutes, Origi had played a part in Andy Robertson before combining with Diaz to net the game-clinching second five minutes from time as Klopp's men won 2-0 to secure a 12th successive home league win.
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Liverpool are now again a point behind leaders Manchester City with five games left to play, with Everton having dropped into the relegation zone.
And of the role of the substitutes, Klopp said: “They did what substitutions should do. We are really happy with their impact this season, to be honest.
“When the boys come on it is all about the right mindset, being ready including all three subs, Hendo came on late but how he showed up was absolutely exceptional.
“Obviously, Luis and Divock were involved in the goals and that helps especially when you play against such a low block. We were not really good in the first half, I can admit that easily as it was obvious. Everybody saw it.
“But it’s not good and good at the same moment because you have half-time and you have a good chance to improve with simple messages and that’s what we did. And then we won, so all good.”
The introduction of Diaz and Origi saw Liverpool switch to 4-4-2 having failed to register a shot on target in the first half.
And Klopp admits he was rewarded for taking the risk of throwing on attack-minded players despite Everton looking increasingly threatening on the counter-attack in the second half.
“The situation in the table is clear for us, it’s not news, but if you want to win the game you have to change things,” said the Reds boss.
“Was it brave? We tried to adapt the game as well in the protection, Anthony (Gordon) was on his bike a couple of times, we cannot leave Joel (Matip) constantly there alone, it makes no sense.
"We told Trent (Alexander-Arnold) to play from a little bit deeper and we wanted Fab on that side as well, so we knew where the threat was coming from and still couldn’t always defend it in the first place. That is how it is.
“In football if you don’t take risks you cannot win a football game. It was obviously easy to improve from the first half and we did, that’s why it was all good.”
