Under-pressure Liverpool's win against Huddersfield 'big relief' - Jurgen Klopp

LIVERPOOL -- Jurgen Klopp admitted Liverpool's 3-0 win over Huddersfield Town on Saturday was a "big relief" after last weekend's heavy defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.

Second-half goals from Daniel Sturridge, Roberto Firmino and Georginio Wijnaldum propelled Liverpool to a comfortable victory over newly promoted side at Anfield.
The Reds responded to a poor first-half performance, in which Mohamed Salah missed a penalty three minutes before half-time, and recorded their first Premier League win in over a month.

Speaking at his postmatch news conference, Klopp said: "We had not the best week as you can imagine -- it's not that we don't take the situation really seriously, it's really important for us.

"Tottenham was the worst game we've played in this season so far and that you cannot ignore it, but you have to work with it and that's what we did. It can happen, especially with the style Huddersfield played today -- a rather defensive style and we were a little bit stiff.
"It was not fluent, we had too many players behind the ball, it was clear we wanted to give them no opportunity for counter-attack and stuff like this, but you don't need seven players behind the ball to protect the counter-attack.
"That's how it looked a little bit in the first half, so it was not too difficult to fix at half-time.

"We [worked on] it during the week already -- the positioning where we have to be so it's more difficult for any opponent to defend it.
"You could see immediately in the second half really, we had more players between the decisive lines and so it was more difficult for Huddersfield to defend.
"We had more chances, but it's a big relief, to be honest, because the pressure was there. There is no doubt about that.
"I could hear that people didn't like the first half too much, I know it's hard work but in the end probably nobody remembers the first half because the second half was really much better.
"It helped a lot today -- three goals, three points, clean sheet, very, very important."

Klopp was forced to make a late change to his starting XI after Dejan Lovren picked up an injury during the warm up, with Ragnar Klavan hurried into the team.
The Liverpool manager said Lovren picked up a thigh issue while exchanging passes with Joel Matip.
"It was the last pass," Klopp added. "Maybe you saw it. Joel and Dejan were exchanging passes and then in the last one, he felt something in the muscle.
"I don't know exactly, we had no time -- the only question I asked in the treatment room was: 'Yes or no?' I got a no and then we changed. It is his thigh.
"You could see Raggy [Klavan] needed a little bit [of time] to find in the game. It was very difficult for him, two minutes before we went in with the squad [he needed to play] and it was not a real warm up for him as a sub, they are not in the mood to start in the next second.
"In the first half, he struggled a little bit but in the second half he was really good. Good news for us."

Meanwhile, Huddersfield boss David Wagner was pleased with the way his players quieted down the Anfield crowd and thwarted Liverpool's attack prior to Sturridge's opener in the 50th minute.
"I would say, at the end, it's a fair result I think," Wagner said afterwards. "Until the first goal we conceded, we played, defensively, very well. We were organised, we neutralised their offensive power.
"I haven't seen Anfield as quiet as it was today over a long time [until] we conceded the first goal. I was here quite often in the last two years.
"I think that shows how good the players have done defensively. We wanted to play in a deeper midfield block and give no space away."