Jurgen Klopp hailed Liverpool playing ‘ugly’ in their 2-0 win at Crystal Palace.
A James Milner penalty and Sadio Mane’s third goal in two games maintained the Reds’ 100 per cent start to the new Premier League season on Monday.
Virgil van Dijk scooped the man-of-the-match award with a dominant defensive performance at Selhurst Park against its battle-hardened hosts.
“You have to play it as it is and be a real challenger, play ugly, do all that type of stuff,” said Klopp.
“Our target is to be a difficult opponent. We did that. We expected Palace to be strong, and to have that clear approach against us playing a big number of long balls.
“I saw that in the warm-up from [Wayne] Hennessey practising and thought, wow, this is going to be really difficult.
“But to see a defender winning almost 100% of the situations clearly without a foul… Virgil was very important. His performance was really, really good.
“Quality costs a specific price. Cars are like that. Lots of things are like that. Players too. But nobody thinks about the fee now, which is good.
“In this market at the moment, he’s at least worth it even if it’s not too cheap. We could have done better offensively, and it was not a brilliant football game from us.
“We don’t have to make it something it was not. But it was a big step. Everyone knows that when we are not brilliant, we usually lose.
“Today we weren’t brilliant but we won.”