Jürgen Klopp has said Adam Lallana is finally getting the rewards his work-rate deserves and is flourishing in Liverpool’s counter-pressing style. The England international produced another impressive display as Hull City were beaten 5-1 at Anfield on Saturday, opening the scoring with his third club goal of the season and creating two others as Liverpool won for a fourth game in succession.

Klopp claimed that his team’s counter-pressing was the most impressive aspect of their performance on Saturday, insisting: “It was the best game in terms of counter-pressing that we have played until now.”

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The manager identified Lallana, who initially struggled at Anfield but has been revitalised under the German coach, as crucial to its success. “Honestly, since I am here Adam is the player you saw against Hull,” Klopp said. “It’s not about always performing like this, it’s about working attitude, being involved in all the team things in all sessions. He likes to train, he likes to work, he was like this from the first day. This is now the credit he takes from the work he did.

“Always in football we are all like this, we want to play a specific position. If I ask my offensive midfield players, of which we have a lot, ‘What’s your favourite position?’ they all would say ‘10’. That’s always the same and maybe Adam would say the same so I didn’t ask him! But it’s all about playing the game and creating the spaces you need. We knew how Hull would defend so he did really well and his most spectacular thing apart from his goal was his counter-pressing, and that was really impressive.

“Look how Hendo [Jordan Henderson] played. A lot of people were pretty sure he cannot play a holding role. Roberto [Firmino], Phil [Coutinho] played a position pretty different to what he played usually. The full-backs and both centre-halves did really well so it was a team performance.”

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Klopp signalled the end of Simon Mignolet’s hold on the No1 position at Liverpool on Saturday by selecting the young German Loris Karius in goal ahead of the Belgium international. He confirmed the £4.7m summer signing, who has barely been tested in his two outings this season, will keep his place at Swansea City next weekend.

The Liverpool manager said: “He’ll play against Swansea again. I’ve already spoken to the goalkeepers and they know it. We had the game at Derby but there were not too many balls. You need to see how a player reacts in games and we don’t have the games in the week. We do it on the weekend and we have to make the decision because the goalkeeper is different to the centre-half position, for example.”