Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp says his team can perform better after their 4-0 thumping of Newcastle United.

The Reds led 1-0 at half-time on Boxing Day thanks to Dejan Lovren's powerful early strike, and Mohamed Salah's penalty doubled their advantage in the opening stages of the second half.

Xherdan Shaqiri made it three by rounding off a slick team move with 11 minutes remaining, before substitute Fabinho completed the scoring with his first Liverpool goal.

Klopp said afterwards, "It was difficult. It is always difficult. I liked the start offensively, but I didn't like the start defensively – the protection was not as it should have been. We were not as compact as we should have been. They had the first corner, half-counters and stuff like that, so it looked like kind of an open game. When we had the ball, after the first 15 minutes, we were good – one-twos, good finishes. We lost the formation a little bit, we were too wide offensively.

"If we could play the ball in behind it was good, but if they could clear it with a header then we were not there to win the ball back formation-wise. 1-0, a fantastic goal, quick in mind; again it was off a set-piece, which is brilliant. A fantastic cross and then a good reaction from pretty much everybody in the box, then a fantastic finish from Dejan. I was really happy about half-time [so that] we could adjust a few things and go back to the way we actually wanted to play. That made life easier, especially after we scored with the penalty in minute 47 – pretty early in the second half. Then we controlled the game, which was good.

"We scored wonderful goals again, set-pieces fantastic. Even Ali could show - apart from all his football-play skills – what his actual job is and saves the clean sheet. A pretty perfect day for us; not a perfect performance, but a really good performance. Result-wise and a lot of parts of the performance, really good."