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Jurgen Klopp revealed the half-time “anger” in the Liverpool dressing room which helped inspire their comeback at Swansea City.

The Reds bounced back from a poor first-half showing at the Liberty Stadium to record a vital 2-1 victory, Roberto Firmino cancelling out Leroy Fer’s opener before James Milner’s late penalty clinched the points.

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Klopp was an animated figure throughout the opening 45 minutes, and Milner told Sky afterwards that the manager had had some harsh words for his players at the break.

And in his post-match press conference, Klopp elaborated.

Asked how angry he had been, he said: “Very. I said to the boys, ‘I am 49, so I have a lot a lot of football games and unfortunately I will lose a few.’ But today makes no sense, because it’s not a day where we should lose a football game.

“We could have done so much better in the first half. It’s not allowed that we accept a bad day. Even on a bad day you have to fight against the start in this game, you have to strike back in the game. You have to cool down.

“There were small things where you could see we lost patience with ourselves and we interrupted the situation by moaning about decisions even if it was absolutely right.

“So we were all angry at half-time but with ourselves, with nobody else. We had to show we could do better because I said to the players until now nobody can see why we are here’. It looks like we are here because there is a football game, but we are here because we want to win a football game.

“In the second half there was no doubt about this any more.”

Klopp was critical of the way his players started the game, in particular their “static” build-up play. He also questioned his side’s “body language” and suggested they appeared “not ready” for the game.

But the three points moves Liverpool up to second in the Premier League table, and it was with a smile that Klopp headed for the team coach and the journey back to Merseyside.

He said: “It’s very important that when you have a not brilliant performance that you’re still able to win. Always.

“We were not ready for this game. It’s my responsibility that we’re ready for games and today I saw that we weren’t. The body language was not good, the build up was too static.

“Swansea did well, that’s important to say, but we were too static. We had no movement. We knew what they wanted to do, similar to what they did against Manchester City, so we knew where the spaces are, but obviously there was a misunderstanding.

“We were never compact enough for counter-pressing situations, that makes no sense. We lost a lot of balls.

“The second half was better. Still not brilliant but better. I think we deserved to win, even when I saw the last chance of Swansea. I think over the whole second half we were the better team.”