Jurgen Klopp joked that he only enjoyed watching Liverpool from the 25th minute onward after his side overcame an uncharacteristically slow start to beat Newcastle United 3-1.
The visitors capitalised on the Reds' hesitancy to take a surprise seventh-minute lead when Jetro Willems cut in off the left wing before unleashing a thunderbolt into the top corner of Adrian's net.
Unfortunately for Steve Bruce's men, the goal only served to shock the hosts into life, with a Sadio Mane brace turning things round before half-time.
Mohamed Salah later added a third to secure a comfortable three points, though Klopp wasn't particularly pleased that his players had initially put themselves in a difficult position.
He said: "I started enjoying it after about 25 minutes when we arrived finally in the game. We needed that. We don’t want it to happen but it’s not unlikely that it can.
"Newcastle did what they did, they do that really well and they are always a threat on the counter attack. It’s difficult to press them because if they do it early, constantly there are second balls and they have the speed to go in behind.
"That’s how they scored the goal, where we played them onside, and that makes it not easy. We had to set the rhythm then, we had to play much quicker than we did in the first part of the game, and the moment we started doing that, we were in the game.
"We scored two wonderful goals, and in the second half we learned from the game, we showed the boys a couple of pictures which helped, we scored only one goal but we played really good football. I liked it a lot. We were deserved winners."
Klopp was, however, glad to see proof that his team are capable of earning three points on days when they aren't quite playing their best football.
He added: "It doesn’t make me too pleased because I think it is the job. We cannot only perform on the best days of our life, if you have an average day you still have to perform and to win.
"We have to learn from the game, that’s how it is. The challenge after the international break is always to find a common rhythm.
"We have had to do that plenty of times, we needed longer today. That’s OK as long as we don’t concede, because there is always a chance to come back."
The margin of victory would have been more comfortable for the hosts had they been awarded a first-half penalty when Joel Matip was clearly fouled in the box by Jamaal Lascelles.
On VAR's failure to award a spot-kick, Klopp said: "The fourth official told me they reviewed it. Was I surprised it was still not a penalty? Yes. For me it was a clear penalty.
"As long as we win, it was not an issue. If we lose 1-0, then it’s a different conversation. But it was a penalty, you cannot fight like this for a ball. We don’t need VAR for these decisions!"
