Jurgen Klopp reveals Liverpool player who was laughed at by Fulham fans - but it majorly backfired

Jurgen Klopp revealed Liverpool’s analysis of Fulham’s set-up at free-kicks was key to their opening goal in their 3-1 win - and Harvey Elliott deserved credit for the part he played.

The Reds moved ahead of Manchester City and joined leaders Arsenal on 74 points in the Premier League title race following their triumph at Craven Cottage. Liverpool opened the scoring in the 32nd minute through Trent Alexander-Arnold’s latest highlight reel free-kick as he found the top corner from 25 yards. But Klopp revealed that would have only been possible had Elliott not failed with an attempt earlier.

The 21-year-old, a pantomime villain among Fulham fans after leaving the west London club for Anfield five years ago, attempted a low effort that tried to go under the Cottagers’ wall but it was read. Yet Klopp believes that made the home side believe that Alexander-Arnold could try to repeat the trick - and the wall did not jump as high when the Liverpool vice-captain beat goalkeeper Bernd Leno.

Reds manager Klopp said: “I think Harvey Elliott has actually 10 per cent, 15 per cent of the goal – because we analysed Fulham and saw that the wall is jumping and told Harvey, ‘Try to go under it.’ They obviously were not really jumping, only a little bit, so Harvey could not go through and the crowd was laughing. If I watch it back, I’m pretty sure the wall [then] didn’t jump as high as maybe they usually do.

“Great free-kick, he has that from time to time. Obviously wonderful goals. Bernd Leno asked me after the game, ‘What kind of goals do you always score against us?’ He probably means against him. That’s true, we had a few crazy ones. But we needed it. It was a great goal, the other goals were as good. For a long period of time Trent was exceptional, super-helpful to have him back. Yeah, top.”

Timothy Casagne equalised for Fulham before half-time but Ryan Gravenberch and Diogo Jota were on target to earn Liverpool all three points. The Reds now turn their attention to facing Everton in the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park on Wednesday.

On the Fulham win, Klopp said: “I liked big parts of the first half already but you are right, the second half was a complete performance, if you want. The start in the game was good. For us, you cannot really explain that, but for us Fulham is a tough place to go. I can’t even remember if we won here before, to be honest, we always struggle here a little bit. If we won, I’m pretty sure it was rather lucky than convincing, maybe I see that wrong. From my point of view, that was the best performance we had so far against Fulham away.”