Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said he did not expect his team to play their best game of the Premier League season immediately after the international break and praised them for rising to the challenge in an uncomfortable game against Watford on Saturday.
Diogo Jotaโs first-half header and a late Fabinho penalty gave Kloppโs side a 2-0 victory that moved them to the top of the table before champions Manchester Cityโs game against Burnley.
โThese games can go either way. If you score early on, then just get in a flow, it can go in one direction. But itโs really unlikely that after the international break you see the best game of the season,โ Klopp told reporters.
Klopp said former Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson had drilled his relegation-threatened Watford side to make life tough for the title contenders at Anfield but the result mattered more than the performance.
โWe had to work through this game against a well-organised Watford side,โ Klopp said. โRoyโs doing a really incredible job. At 1-0, nothing changed, they were going for counter-attacks. When the players came on, going for counter-attacks.
โIt makes it uncomfortable. We had in the first half the one scary moment when Alisson (Becker) had this incredible save but we scored our goal and kept it controlled, which is the most important thing.
โScoring the second was obviously kind of a relief. Winning the game is all we wanted. The boys delivered and so now we can carry on.โ
Liverpool travel to Benfica for the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday night before a blockbuster clash away at City next weekend.