'I loved that!' - Jurgen Klopp says two things were 'sensational' in Liverpool draw vs Aston Villa

Jurgen Klopp saluted Liverpool’s ‘character and attitude’ they displayed in their 3-3 draw against Aston Villa.

The Reds made the trip to Villa Park having already secured third place. The home side, on the other hand, are chasing Champions League qualification.

It proved an entertaining affair, with Liverpool opening the scoring in just 61 seconds through Emi Martinez’s own goal but that was cancelled out by Youri Tielemanns’ strike.

The Reds restored their advantage through Cody Gakpo before Jarell Quansah increased the lead. But two goals in the final five minutes from John Duran meant the spoils were shared in Klopp’s final away match as Liverpool manager.

And Klopp heaped praise on his players despite not holding out for a victory. The Liverpool manager said: “I don't feel frustrated. Maybe I should, but I just don't. I am really happy. Look, we all saw these kind of games before; we all saw games where one team is playing for absolutely everything – qualifying for the Champions League probably means for Aston Villa everything – and one team is already fixed in the position they are in. The challenge we had today was we had to show character and attitude – and the boys showed sensational character and sensational attitude. I loved that!

“That you can dominate the game like we did here today and against a [good] team, Unai Emery teams [are] historically sensationally well-organised. They wanted to be aggressive and they wanted to go for us and they couldn't because we were that flexible, I liked that a lot. We scored early with some scrappy thing, I don't know exactly how the ball went over the line – I didn't see it properly from my position and couldn't watch it back yet. Their first chance is then the equaliser but around that we controlled it, we play well, we create, we mix it up really well, in behind, in between and I liked it a lot. We adapted to the ideas they had, we improved our protection because the counter-attacking threat was obviously there, but we adjusted to that and it was good. Two-one, nice goal, second half, again good, not a big change and they all of a sudden push us back or whatever.

“[Then] 3-1, wonderful. Then we get a bit tired, the organisation gets a bit loose and they create too much. That's the moment where you can change. That's what we did and we had immediately after the change two or three good situations – one really good situation I think with Dom [Szoboszlai] in the six-yard box. Then we make the mistake for the 3-2, give the ball away there, and then the gates were open and it was Aston Villa really smelling the chance again. They took the point and that's how it is, not great but you can make of it what you want, that it's the story of the season or whatever. I don't see it like that.

“For me, the story of the season is that the boys have really, really good character and a sensational attitude – that's why we were here today and that's why we have now 79 points. I know nobody wants to hear it, but being this season the third-best team in the league from where we came from is a statement as well. It's improvement with a lot of changes and I like it. I am not over the moon about it but obviously for a week or two we've had to accept we cannot be the best or the second-best team in the league, [but] that's a good basis for the future and that's all you can ask for.”