Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand heaped praises on Liverpool and their head coach Jurgen Klopp. The former United captain shared how Liverpool always gets their recruitment process right and they always look for the right players who will improve their team since coming on to the Anfield.
Liverpool won the Champions League semifinal first leg 2-0 against Villareal. The Reds got the upper hand in the 53rd minute as Pervis Estupinan’s own goal gave Klopp’s men the lead in the second half. A couple of minutes later, Sadio Mane doubled the scoreline and sealed the win for the Reds.
Jurgen Klopp’s men are still in contention for the unprecedented quadruple as they are also putting a lot of pressure on league leaders Manchester City. Hence Ferdinand heaped a lot of praise on the team’s recruitment process.
“The recruitment, it’s amazing what they’ve done. They don’t get many wrong. The important part is when players come through the door here, they improve.”
Following the fulltime whistle Jurgen Klopp was satisfied with his team’s performances. But he understands that the tie is not over yet. He shared how the team functioned brilliantly and did not allow Villareal to attack much as they can be very tricky from their counter attacks.
“It was a brilliant game. First half I liked a lot. We didn’t score, that is the only problem actually. But we kept them quiet, which is important because of the attacking threat that they are. We tried to create, tried to be direct, mix it up, all these kind of things, play through the lines, over the lines,” Klopp said following his team’s 2-0 win over the Yellow Submarines.
The German tactician was happy with all the good moments that his team had on the pitch. The goals were surely a help, but he was more happy with the way they controlled the game and never allowed the opponent to dictate terms even for a small phase in the game.
“We had a lot of good moments, no goals, true. In the second half we finished the situations off in a superb way. Both goals were outstanding. We wanted to score a third but from that moment on it makes sense that we control the game and that is what we did,” he concluded.
Liverpool will next face Newcastle United in the Premier League as they look to keep pushing Manchester City for the Premier League title.
