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Jurgen Klopp hailed “absolutely spectacular” Mamadou Sakho as he backed the Kop’s ringing endorsement of the French defender’s current form.

Sakho’s name was chanted during and after the 1-1 Europa League tie with Rubin Kazan, leading to the 25-year-old saluting the Liverpool fans from the centre circle at the end of the game.

Always a popular player with the supporters, he has started the Klopp era in style, making many question even more why Brendan Rodgers left him out of the line-up earlier in the season.

Sakho did not even make the bench in Premier League openers against Stoke and Bournemouth, and only returned to the starting line-up for the away leg against Bordeaux in the Europa League.

Rodgers suggested fitness concerns were at least a part of his decision but the popular centre-back has maintained his place since – bar being rested against Sion – and now appears to be firmly established in the back four favoured by Klopp.

The Reds boss had no wish to reflect on issues from before his arrival but is delighted with what he has seen from Sakho since his arrival.

Klopp said: “I can’t say anything about this (failing to start earlier in the year). Maybe he was not fit or things like this. But I can understand why they shouted his name. Mama was really spectacular defending and good playing football.

“But he was not 100% better than the other players, so you see the game was not too bad. They tried.”

A second successive draw has not fazed the German about the task ahead at Liverpool and he is confident that the longer his side train together, the better results will become.

He highlighted the efforts of many of his players during his debut game at Anfield against Kazan.

“Adam Lallana again, Mignolet again, Emre Can again," said Klopp. "I don’t know, when did Joe Allen play last time? Only because of the yellow card we had to take him out.

“Origi is young, has not played 90 minutes for a long, long time, but played 90 again this week.

“Both full-backs were on the road, ran for their lives, so we had those options, that’s what we need. Now we have to train, to work together, and it will get better for sure and then we’ll get the results.”

'I'll give the young players time to develop'

Despite the ongoing concerns over Daniel Sturridge – with a return on Sunday against Southampton now appearing most unlikely - Klopp remains happy with the striking options available too him, with Christian Benteke returning from injury with a promising half an hour against Kazan.

“There are two things in football make a difference, the way you play and the players," added Klopp.

“Sometimes you need this striker, of course you always need a finisher, someone for the last ball. Benteke and Firmino were in three days of light training and because of our situation they were in the squad on Thursday.

“If you take Messi out of Barcelona for about a year, ask them how they feel? If you take Aguero for one year out of Man City, ask them how they feel? If you take Lewandowski... things like this, that’s always the same in football.

“But you can make the probability bigger that you win with the plan you have.

“We have the strikers we need. You will not hear from me ‘that with Sturridge, or with Benteke we can do this’... because I’m really satisfied with the guys on the pitch.

“The question for you (the media) is ‘will you give these young players the time to develop’. Why? I’ll give them the time, I’ve got no problems with this but you have to decide if you want to help.

“It was not perfect (Kazan) but really not too bad. Only because of a little lack of respect against Kazan, we thought we could shoot them out of the stadium. But you saw they are good. It’s a big challenge when we go there, but we know more about the opponent now and we will see what we can do.”

'I know that it’s not easy to do the right things at Liverpool in this moment'

Klopp said he was aware of the problems faced by his squad before his arrival with only the cruciate ligament injuries to Danny Ings and Joe Gomez new issues to deal with since he started his role.

“It’s a hard job," he said. "I knew it would be. If I wanted an easy way I could stay a little bit longer on holiday.

“I knew about the problems of course, and okay some new ones came with Ingsy and with Gomez, all the rest was completely clear. I’ve watched football for many years and I know that it’s not easy to do the right things at Liverpool in this moment, because the expectations are so big.

“But what I’ve felt until now is that we all pulled a little bit down and we can now start, and everybody understands and knows that it’s hard work. It’s a long way. And this way, we’ll take the next step for sure.

“If you want fast results, we have to say ‘okay, it didn’t work, it didn’t happen’. But if you want development then you can find some things against Rubin that were better than last Saturday. That’s what we have do in this moment.”

The Reds boss believes his players needed to show extra calmness at key moments against Kazan to get the win.

“We all know football is not a game where you can play genius, where you can make a genius plan with not Barcelona or Bayern Munich players," said Klopp. "We have to help the players bring out their best, and that’s what we try to do.

“At the end there were two or three moments (against Kazan) where we could be more clear in situations on how to score a goal and that was all. The rest was okay. And then they score the goal and that changed it all.

“It was not an enjoyable game any more – you know, ‘F---, even when Klopp is on the side we don’t win 8-0’. That’s the situation but we were still in the game and I could see the reaction of the team. They were not always calm enough, that’s the truth, but that’s something we have to learn.

“The defending was okay, we had some great moments in defence, technically perfect situations and offense very often very good, but not perfect.”

Klopp and his team will be back at Anfield on Sunday for a 4.15pm kick-off with Southampton.