Effort and commitment give Huddersfield Town boss Wagner hope after Liverpool loss

Emre Can and Roberto Firmino both scored excellent first-half goals to put Liverpool in control and Mohamed Salah added his 26th goal of the season with a late penalty.

It meant Jurgen Klopp completed the double over close friend Wagner after Liverpool beat Huddersfield by the same scoreline at Anfield back in October.

Wagner was left to rue a missed opportunity when Laurent Depoitre fired straight at Loris Karius when the score was 0-0, but had no complaints with the result.

“It was hard work and the guys worked very hard. There is no doubt that this was a deserved defeat,” he said.

“The quality side has won today. Against a team of this quality the important situations have to go in your favour to be successful.”

Wagner’s side are now one point above the bottom three, who all have a game in hand, but the German kept his club’s plight in perspective.

“I see effort, I see a commitment and attitude, togetherness - everything you need at first.

“Confidence is not the highest. If you have a lot of defeats there is no question about that.

“The good thing is we don’t like where we are and we have this period where we don’t collect points, but we are not surprised. This is not unexpected and this makes it possible to manage.

“This means we lift our heads, meet in the morning for work and prepare for Saturday, Manchester United at Old Trafford.”

Understandably, Klopp hopes his good friend’s team can survive to enjoy a second season in the Premier League.

“To stay in the Premier League is a difficult thing to do for most of the clubs, said Klopp. “I think when people thought where Huddersfield would be by the end of January - not a lot thought they wouldn’t be in a relegation position and they are not.

“Don’t care about which opponent is there, just go for it. I would love to come here again because we can come on the bus, we don’t have to fly.

“In an hour we were here so Huddersfield, stay in the league!”