The newly promoted club’s display at Anfield on Friday earned plaudits from the German boss, despite his side’s comfortable win
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp branded Norwich City “cheeky like hell” and expects them to cause teams problems in the Premier League.
Despite falling to a 4-1 defeat at Anfield on the opening day of the new season, Daniel Farke’s side gave a solid account of themselves in their first match since winning the Championship.
Teemu Pukki and Marco Stiepermann missed first-half chances and Liverpool punished them, with Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Divock Origi adding to Grant Hanley’s seventh-minute own goal.
Norwich refused to lay down and got the goal their performance deserved when Pukki slid a cool finish past substitute goalkeeper Adrian – a first-half replacement for the injured Alisson – in the 64th minute.
“A long part of the game, really good,” Klopp told a post-match news conference. “The first 60 minutes we were pretty impressive. If you are surprised that Norwich uses little moments for being dangerous, I’m not. That’s how they are.
“For 60 minutes we did what we had to do. We could’ve scored more, especially after half-time. Maybe then the opponent impressed a bit more as they were not really fussed about the result.
“They stayed cheeky, they stayed lively, they did what they wanted to do. They played, they changed offensively. I have the biggest respect for what Daniel’s doing there with the boys. A very interesting and exciting team they have there.
“They had their pretty risky formation and used that, but we were not really in danger, they were just good in a couple good moments.
“We played against an opponent who will cause a lot of teams problems with the way they play, that’s really good. They are cheeky like hell and do what they do no matter what happens.
“They caused us problems in some moments, but I’m not surprised about that, it’s completely normal.”
The result ran Klopp’s record in opening-day matches to three wins and draw, with Liverpool having netted 15 times in their four openers under the German.
The German also watched Liverpool score three times in the opening half-hour of a match for the first time since February of 2014.