Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp challenged his gamers to make use of back-to-back Premier League victories over Everton and Newcastle as a springboard to tug themselves up the desk.
Saturday night’s eventful 2-0 win at St James’ Park, which got here 5 days after their derby success by the identical scoreline, eased the Reds to inside six factors of the fourth-placed Magpies with a sport in hand.
Significantly, it was achieved courtesy of a second successive clear sheet – one thing they haven’t achieved within the league since October – a lot to Klopp’s delight.
He mentioned: “Massive, 100 per cent. It explains a little bit the issues we have in the games where we can’t control it better. It’s so long ago we were in a situation like that.
“It’s unfortunate that football is not like cycling, always exactly on the same level. It’s different. The only way you can get back on track is by winning.
“We’ve now done it twice in a row and that feels absolutely incredible.”
Liverpool twice breached a Newcastle defence, which has received rave evaluations this season, contained in the opening 17 minutes. Darwin Nunez made probably the most of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s excellent ball excessive earlier than Cody Gakpo repeated the feat with the help of Mohamed Salah.
The Magpies’ woes deepened considerably with 22 minutes gone when goalkeeper Nick Pope dealt with exterior his space as he tried to stop Salah from reaching Alisson Becker’s clearance and was despatched off, and though the Brazilian needed to tip a searing Allan Saint-Maximin shot on to his crossbar, which was thumped by a Dan Burn header minutes later, the factors had been protected.
Klopp mentioned: “We didn’t score [a third] and that keeps the game exciting and Newcastle, all credit to them, they put a proper shift in, they really wanted to go for it, they fought really hard.
“That’s why it was exciting until the end, but we got the three points and we are very happy about that.”
The solely fly within the ointment for the guests was the shoulder damage Nunez suffered in a second-half tangle with Kieran Trippier.
Klopp mentioned: “The bad news, Darwin has something on his shoulder. We will see.
“We need further assessment. I don’t know in the moment. In the moment it is painful, but hopefully it’s just painful and not more.”