Lucas leads the celebrations as Liverpool took the points against Chelsea
After having received our own man of the match award after his performance on Saturday, Lucas Leiva has been singing the praises of the man he credits with the big turn around in the team’s fortunes this past few weeks.
The midfielder has been the main beneficiary, so far, of Klopp’s work on the training ground in these first few weeks and has seen his own fortunes change drastically in just a few weeks.
Go back as far as August and the current longest serving Liverpool player looked to be being moved on by the former manager and was a mainstay of the latest Liverpool transfer news. Obviously, when it became apparent that you couldn’t really go away to a place like Arsenal and not play a defensive midfielder, Lucas got his chance but it wasn’t until Klopp’s arrival that the 28 year old really began to find his place again.
And Lucas puts the credit for those changes down to the German, who already seems to have won over the vast majority of his players and who’s message seems to be getting through.
Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com, Lucas said: “We conceded an early goal and during the last few months if we conceded a goal our body language maybe wasn’t the best.
“But after the Southampton game the manager spoke to us and said you can’t think too much about a goal if you concede it, and you just need to get back on your game.
“That’s what we did I think and the goal came at the right time for us just before half-time, but even in the first-half I thought we were the better team.”
Whereas the progress under Jurgen Klopp as been noticeable from game to game prior to Saturday, the changes and tweaks from the sidelines made a real difference against Chelsea. Particularly with Klopp barking constant instructions to his players throughout, and those instructions and changes paid dividends, as Liverpool came through the stronger in the second half.
Lucas continued: “In the second-half I thought both teams had chances but we looked really solid defending and on the counter-attack we took our chances and I thought it was a deserved win.
“There’s still a lot of things to improve on, but it’s better improving and winning.
“It was a massive win for us because after a few draws we needed these three points and hopefully now in our next two games, in the Europa League [against Rubin Kazan] and then back to the Premier League [Crystal Palace] we can get a good momentum before the international break comes.”
The ghost of Rodgers has finally been cast out, Brendan the ghoul has gone and the Liverpool resurrection has taken place