Jurgen Klopp names Liverpool player who was 'outstanding' and who was 'much improved' in victory

Jurgen Klopp saluted a 'mature' Liverpool performance as they battled to a hard-fought victory against Sheffield United.

The Reds earned a 2-0 triumph at Bramall Lane to move back within two points of Arsenal in the Premier League title race. Liverpool were not at their free-flowing best but opened the scoring in the 37th minute through a Virgil van Dijk volley. Then in stoppage-time, the visitors confirmed all three points when Dominik Szoboszlai finished with aplomb.

Klopp has described Liverpool's hectic fixture schedule as the 'most intense of the season'. They face another rapid turnaround when heading to Crystal Palace on Saturday lunchtime. It will be the Reds' third game in a seven-day period.

And the Anfield supremo knows that results rather than impressive displays are the most important thing at this crucial juncture. Klopp told reporters: I'm really pleased with the result, it's obviously the perfect result, I'm really pleased with a lot of aspects of the game. I would call it kind of a mature performance – besides a few moments when we gave the ball away in areas where we just should not do it and that's when the crowd got a bit excited, I would say.

"Besides that, if you didn't see the game, you could have heard it because we calmed an atmosphere which was probably ready to go down and didn't really let it happen, which is really super-important. I don't want to be overly critical, I know we can play better football, but this time of the year you play, hopefully win, recover and play again. That's it."

Klopp made four changes from the 4-3 victory over Fulham. He opted to hand Wataru Endo just a third Premier League start since arriving from Stuttgart. And the Liverpool boss stuck with Szobozlai, who had hit a dip in form but was 'much improved' against United.

Klopp added: "I thought he [Endo] played outstanding, to be honest. Dom, much improved I would say. He was really there, really aggressive.

"I liked it and the boys came on and in the end, Dom in the left wing - he can play that position as well. It gives us a few more options. We don't have that many at the moment but we have a few and will try to use them all."