The Reds have boosted their top-four hopes after his Liverpool side recorded back-to-back Premier League wins with a hard-fought 3-2 victory against Nottingham Forest on Saturday and Jurgen Klopp now believes ‘some things have changed’ for his Reds.
Liverpool had more than convincingly crushed Leeds United 6-1 earlier in the week before nudging out struggling Forest to secure successive league wins for the first time since the start of March. As things stand, the Reds have now been victorious in their last four games and have moved up to seventh in the standings with 50 points, six adrift of Newcastle United in fourth, who will square off against fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
“Some things have changed. Today I saw a lot of top, top, top counter-pressing moments,” Klopp told reporters after the win at Anfield.
“I loved that – and that’s, for us, super-important. I think we are much clearer again in that department.
“If you are not only solid but really good and aggressive and positive in defending then you can build on that. For me, it feels like it’s the first time this season that we have that – late but hopefully not too late.”
Klopp was also quick to praise forward Diogo Jota, who rose to the occasion scoring twice against Forest and now has four goals in two games after having failed to score in his previous 32 appearances for the club. Mohamed Salah wrapped up the winning goal after Neco Williams and Morgan Gibbs-White had turned in their consecutive equalisers respectively for Forest.
Jota had been rather unfortunate to have spent a considerable amount of time on the sidelines earlier this season with a calf injury, but has bounced back to hit his stride in recent weeks and also scored two goals in the win over Leeds.
“I think the second goal you really can see what goals do to offensive players. They give confidence,” Klopp said.
“It’s wonderful after the long, long time that he was out and now having these positive things – was involved in the Arsenal equaliser in a very important manner and now scoring twice a brace – is top.”
Liverpool will be eager to fan their faint hopes of a top-four finish when they travel to West Ham United on Wednesday.