Jurgen Klopp demanded his Liverpool players stop being so "desperate" and play with more composure during half-time in Wednesday night's Premier League clash with Newcastle.
The Reds went into the interval trailing the Magpies by one goal to nil after Alexander Isak scored on his debut at Anfield. However, the hosts emerged with all three points at the full-time whistle following Roberto Firmino's equaliser and a breathtaking 98th-minute winner from substitute Fabio Carvalho.
While Liverpool were a shadow of the side which thrashed Bournemouth 9-0 four days earlier, they were much improved after half-time, proving whatever Klopp said during the break did the trick. The German was quizzed on what he said to his players in the dressing room and responded that he simply told them to "keep calm a little more and keep going".
"The perfect moment to win this game because it was a difficult game, very passionate, aggressive defending," Klopp told BT Sport. "It's difficult to pick up the rhythm from a game where everything clicked immediately and you find yourself in situations where it isn't clicking immediately.
"Even before we were 1-0 down, we looked in situations a little bit desperate. We had to force ourselves to keep calm a little more and keep going. In the end, we forced it and what a wonderful goal from the birthday kid. This is the best way to win a football game. I think that we scored after 90-plus-eight is the perfect response. I'm really happy about that."
As Klopp alluded to, Carvalho turned 20 on Tuesday and the playmaker drew praise from his manager after making it goals in back-to-back games. "For him it's his second goal," Klopp said of the youngster. "Fantastic boy, we changed pretty much everything, very offensive orientated but he can also play there. If a boy is as good as he is then he needs the moment."
Did Liverpool deserve all three points against Newcastle? Have your say in the comments!
Meanwhile, Carvalho paid tribute to the home faithful for helping Liverpool get over the line, saying: "I was just in the right area. Look at this, these fans they kept us going. Without the fans, this wouldn't be possible.
"We just kept going and a well deserved three points. It was a bit frustrating at times, they [Newcastle] had players going down but let's not talk about them, let's talk about us. Hopefully we can build on this. We have to keep going and keep working and more wins will come."
