The Reds won 2-0 at Bramall Lane to close the gap on Arsenal in the Premier League title race to two points. Liverpool were not at their best, but Virgil van Dijk’s volley in the 37th minute put them ahead. The visitors then clinched all three points in stoppage time as Dominik Szoboszlai finished with style.

Liverpool’s demanding fixture calendar has been dubbed by Klopp as the “most intense of the season.” They will have another quick turnaround when they travel to Crystal Palace on Saturday lunchtime. The Reds will play their third game in seven days.

And the Anfield manager understands that results, not dazzling displays, are critical at this critical moment. 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 substitutions from the 4-3 win over Fulham. He chose to give Wataru Endo only his third Premier League start since joining from Stuttgart. And Klopp persevered with Szobozlai, who had slumped in form but was’much improved’ versus 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.”