Jurgen Klopp made a point of highlighting Liverpool's drop off in pressing their opponents during their 2-1 win over Ajax on Tuesday night.
The Reds, whose form is very much under the spotlight, secured a late success over their Dutch opponents thanks to Joel Matip's 89th minute header. Liverpool were looking to respond following their humiliating 4-1 reverse at Napoli last week.
Ajax were always going to be challenging opponents and they cancelled out Mohamed Salah's opener when Mohammed Kudus lashed home in front of the Kop to send the teams in level at the break. Klopp cited how the hosts, who begun with their usual high press, had begun letting their opponents off the hook.
Klopp said: "Our high press was good. The midfield press was good; could have been better in moments but was generally good. And then you concede, you are 1-0 up and you concede with the first chance of the opponent, the equaliser. So, that’s what I mean it’s typical, like a proper setback.
"The reaction was OK, not perfect but OK. But in half-time we told the boys that after the goal our pressing didn’t look as convinced anymore as before. In these moments you only talk about a few yards or one harder sprint. It’s not a big difference but it makes a big difference.
"That’s what we tried to do again in the second half and it was clear that we had to keep playing football because for Ajax it was really tough to defend us today, they had to work a lot. You saw it immediately after half-time, it was a bit more aggression from their side – little fouls, not harsh fouls but interruptions like this. That’s always a sign [of] ‘OK, give us time’."
The three points lifts Liverpool up to second in their group, behind Napoli who are yet to play their second game of the campaign against Rangers. The Reds certainly dominated proceedings and limited Ajax to just the one shot on target.
Centre-half Virgil van Dijk said: "Coming back from the horror show in Naples it was very important to show a positive reaction. It's not easy to turn it around, but it is a step in the right direction... It was very important to win going into the international break.
"We are not listening to the outside world. A lot of ex-football players, who know exactly what we go through, they say a lot to get us down, but we know the last game was very bad and this was a step in the right direction."
