Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp reveals his tactics as Reds beat Manchester City 4-1 at Etihad

Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Liverpool had to find a way to create problems for Manchester City by pressing higher up the pitch and was delighted his side could manage to do it during their 4-1 win in the Premier League clash at the Etihad. The Reds were impressive throughout the game as Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino were the star players for them on Saturday.

Manuel Pellegrini started Martin Demichelis and Eliaquim Mangala in the heart of the back four, with Nicolas Otamendi forced to start from the bench as Vincent Kompany is recovering from injury. The France international scored an own goal, which gave the Merseyside club an early lead, before the Brazil international scored twice to make it 3-0 just after the half-hour mark.

Liverpool were aware of City's goal scoring threat possessed by the likes of Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne in their squad. The former Atletico Madrid striker returned from injury and scored the only goal for his side before the break. Klopp admitted that Liverpool capitalised on their opponent's lack of confidence in defence in the Anfield club's latest win.

"It's a very important thing in football and the better your opponent is the more important it gets that you do things like this," Klopp explained, as quoted by Liverpool's official website.

"Manchester City were top of the table, so at this moment are the best team in England. We had to try to find some ways to cause them problems and that's what we did," he added.

"The next point is, if you win a ball [high up the pitch], then it's not the longest way in the right direction and that's very important of course. We try to do similar things but not always the same."

"What we try to do is to analyse the opponent and see what their biggest strength is and things we can do that they don't feel confident [defending against] then we try to do it," the German said.

On Liverpool's victory over City, Klopp said: "It was very satisfying, but whether it is was the best [performance] I am not sure. I rarely compare games."

"Tonight was very good, but it was not perfect because we can defend better and stay in the game better when we have a 3-0 lead. But when you win 4-1 against Man City it should be a very good performance – and it was very good. It was deserved."