Jurgen Klopp was very proud of his Liverpool team after their 2-0 win at Arsenal on Sunday, but he did say that Cody Gakpo had a tough time in the middle of the field.

Arsenal had a lot of chances but missed them all. The Reds rode their luck for a while until Jakub Kiwior scored an own goal in the 80th minute and Luis Diaz scored a late second.

Liverpool didn’t have players like Virgil van Dijk (illness), Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai (injuries), Mo Salah and Wataru Endo (international service), so they put Jarell Quansah in defense and Gakpo in the middle of the field.

Klopp was happy with most of his players, but he did say that Gakpo wasn’t at his best in that role. He also said that his front three weren’t at their best in the first half, but they got better after halftime.

Klopp said, “Top, top” when asked about the play of center backs Quansah and Ibrahima Konate. Oh my god, the worst part was when Ibou was already down twice and Jarell fell on him and jarred and bent his back a bit.

“To be honest, I thought that was it. It would have been very tough early on in the game.”

“It was really good from Konate and Quansah. Joey González was also good, and Trent Alexander-Arnold was great.” Also, Ali [Alisson Becker] is there for a while, which is good.

“It was a little harder for Cody [Gakpo] because we put him back in that position. Also, I think the timing of the front three wasn’t great for the important situations, which is why Arsenal were able to pass too often.”

“It was hard. We try to be ready for everything, but did I get ready for a double 10 and a high winger?” No, it was more my fault than the boys’. The first half gave us a chance to see it, watch it, and learn from it. The second half was much better.

Trent Alexander Arnold talked about the changes they made to their strategy at halftime: “I think there were times in the first half when we were a little bit naïve. We got caught playing out from the back, and they had their chances because of our mistakes and maybe a sloppy pass here and there.” Their style is to press hard, so they’ll do that.

“We stuck to the way we wanted to play because we have a style of our own. We want to play football and use the strengths of each player. With the front line we had, Harvey Elliott was one of them, and we wanted to get him on the ball.” We also have Darwin Nunez and Lucho, who are fast, so we’re putting the balls in behind them and giving them what they want.

“We changed things up. Darwin went a bit wider, and Cody Gakpo went in the middle. I think that made a big difference.” The speed of Darwin helped us a lot in the second half when we played one-on-one with their full-back.