Both clubs progressed through to the semi-finals of the League Cup during the week, and after being asked about the possibility of facing the Manchester giants, Klopp laughs off their threat, stating “We have no problem with Manchester City”. Klopp was also impressed with the performance of Origi, but believes both him and Sturridge have plenty of room for improvement. You could argue that the tactical straitjacket Louis Van Gaal imposes on his players is more oppressive than anything the Liverpool boss has done.
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The goals took Sturridge’s tally for the season to four from five games, yet more incredibly took him past Wayne Rooney’s number of domestic goals.
“I didn’t yet because I haven’t got all the TV channels at the moment – but I know the result!”
He added: “I already did this [scored a hat-trick] previous year but I think I’ve worked very hard and I have the support of everybody so today I’m glad that the coach gave me the confidence and I could reward him with the hat-trick”. “Write that. Jürgen said maybe he could be much better”. He had not the flawless pre-season.
“We made super goals, I have to say – they were really, really nice with good play and good chances”.
“He scores all sorts of goals and he is probably the only player I look at – a bit like Wayne Rooney in his younger days – who has that got that swag and arrogance when he plays”.
Southampton, who were attempting to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 1987, took the lead on 41 seconds when Sadio Mane headed in Ryan Bertrand’s cross.
Klopp’s side ran out the 6-1 winners in the Capital One Cup quarter-final at Southampton on Wednesday night, and have lost one in 11 under the former Borussia Dortmund manager.
While Liverpool’s improvement under Klopp, especially away from home, has sparked a wave of renewed belief among their fans, they were second best and a long way off the pace as Southampton grabbed an early stranglehold on the tie.
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“Great play of Liverpool”, he said. Very complete, defensively strong, good movement, and they killed the game with high quality, but too easy in my opinion.
