Jurgen Klopp praises Xherdan Shaqiri’s contribution following Liverpool’s commanding 3-0 win over Southampton at the Anfield on Saturday.
Shaqiri made his first start in the Premier League since his summer arrival from Stoke City and had the crowds dancing on their feet with his brilliant performance in the second half.
The German boss made a number of changes to the starting lineup that defeated PSG in the Champions League and handed Shaqiri his first start in the top flight. The Swiss international had an eventful afternoon as he was involved in two goals.
Shaqiri’s cross got flicked off Southampton defender Wesley Hoedt and found the corner to give the home side a 1-0 lead. He then nearly scored a goal but saw his free kick struck the bar and Mohamed Salah was quick to hit it on the rebound to round off a complete performance.
Klopp said, “The result is really cool, the performance could have been better, that was clear, and we made some changes that cost us because I changed the system as well!
“Without training that is always difficult, I don’t like it too much but we tried something and the changes we made were obviously good because Shaq was quite influential and Joel Matip as well.
“That was the reason that we bought him. I said to him at half-time that I’ve never taken a player off, who is not injured, after a performance like he had in the first half but today we needed to get back our organisation. It’s all good, he made a real impact which was good to see.
“Organisation-wise, we had a few problems, you could see a lot of discussions on the pitch, and how we closed gaps and stuff like that. So that is why we changed back to a system that we are used to.”
