Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool have given themselves a “basis for the rest of the season” with the fight and attitude they showed in scrapping to another Chelsea stalemate.
A much-changed Reds side ended a run of three successive defeats with a hard-earned goalless draw at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday evening.
Virgil van Dijk was absent through illness while Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah were restricted to late cameos and Trent Alexander-Arnold remained on the bench as Liverpool secured only their fourth away clean sheet of the Premier League season.
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It was the fourth successive time the two teams had played out a goalless draw. And asked how he viewed the outcome, Klopp said: “A point gained. It was an away game. It was not the most spectacular game I’ve ever saw. I saw two of them last season with two Liverpool-Chelsea finals which were absolutely insane.
“There were very similar teams here but completely different football because of different levels of confidence for both teams.
“But this was the fight we had to show tonight. This was the way we have to start again our development. We cannot have a couple of things which weren’t what they should have been and we fix it overnight.
“It’s not about finding big explanations, it’s about putting the hard work in and that’s what the boys did and that’s what I liked about the game. It’s a point more than before and I can easily live with that. It’s not a situation where you go out and play backheels and one-twos. We have to fight through it. I know people don’t want to hear that.
“I saw a really good attitude from my team tonight and that’s what I wanted to see. This is the basis for the rest of the season.”
Klopp admitted he took a risk by heavily rotating his squad, with this the second of three pivotal games inside nine days in their pursuit of Champions League qualification.
“I decided to made six changes and always against a good team that can be a big problem, and three were in the last line which is obviously a real challenge for the players,” said the Reds boss. “We had a few problems early on, but apart from that Chelsea had their chances after we lost balls in moments when we just cannot lose balls.
“That’s a problem we keep a little bit, that’s not good. But the recovery after that, the desire to sort the situation, I liked. It wasn’t the most spectacular, but a step for us, a little step but a step in the right direction.”
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