Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp lavished praise on his full-back pairing of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kostas Tsimikas for their fantastic showing during the weekend’s Anfield showdown against Burnley.
Klopp’s men secured a convincing win over the Clarets with goals from Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane as Liverpool retained their momentum of the new season.
Both Arnold and Tsimikas got assists to their names with the full-back duo setting up Mane and Jota for their goals respectively in what was a show of fantastic attacking ability from the two players.
Tsimikas, who was providing cover for the injured Andy Robertson in the left-back role, put in a delightful cross into the box which was met by Jota to give Liverpool the lead and Arnold’s clever dink for Mane in the second half allowed the latter to double Liverpool’s advantage.
In his post-match remarks, Klopp praised his players for the win against Burnley with the Liverpool boss saying that the full-back’s displays had set the tone for the victory.
“Both full-backs had a good game. Both spectacular, if you want, with two nice [assists] – Kostas with the cross and Trent with the little cheeky curve ball or whatever for Sadio. It was a good game. I think everybody thinks both full-backs played a good game and in this situation that means they were defensively really good as well in a really difficult game from a defensive point of view.
“In football, usually you have a plan, you have an idea, you want to win the ball here or there, against Burnley there is no winning the ball here or there. It is only around the centre-halves where you have to pick the ball up and we have to protect constantly like crazy. I cannot remember a high-press situation, it is just not possible, at least it was not possible today.
“But the full-backs were really good, which helped us to win the game.”
