Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola has had his say after his side seemingly came in for some criticism from Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler after the Reds' 2-0 win at the weekend

Andoni Iraola has responded to claims over his side’s performance against Brighton after Fabian Hurzeler appeared to aim a dig at Liverpool on Sunday.

The Reds claimed their first home league win of the season as they beat the high-flying Seagulls 2-0 at Anfield, with Florian Wirtz forcing an own-goal from Pascal Gross before Alexander Isak doubled the lead in the first half.

Liverpool was made to work to hold onto its lead, with Brighton seeing more of the ball in the second half and ending the game with more shots in total, although only one of those was on target.

Nevertheless, Brighton boss Hurzeler seemed to criticize Liverpool’s approach when speaking in his post-match press conference.

"I think everyone in the stadium saw that there was one team who really tried to create and try to win this game and therefore I have to praise my players," Hurzeler said.

"I think everyone in the stadium, and you as well, felt there was a missed opportunity for us, because it's not only after the goal or the goals they scored.

"Also, before they scored, we had one or two big chances, and today, I think it was just the difference that they scored and we didn't score.”

Iraola has now had his say on his side’s performance amid Hurzeler’s claims, and has insisted he never felt like his team was not in control against Brighton.

“I always said, who controls the game is who controls the chances. It's not who has the ball,” Iraola said in his press conference on Tuesday ahead of facing Chelsea in the Carabao Cup.

“I think against Brighton, for example, they had the ball more than us, but the ball is spent in their half more than in our half.

“I was really pleased with the performance, but definitely there are things we can improve. We had a good spell in the last 10 minutes, we controlled much better. We had a moment in the second half where we were defending well, but conceding probably too much territory.

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“Overall, I would like to play the game like how we played in the first 30, 35 minutes. That's our goal long-term, but I understand that normally you don’t arrive there. You can extend it, you can have your moments, but I would love it if we can keep this level for all the games.

“Normally, during 90 minutes, you'll have moments where you have to stay more compact, you have to play differently, and we should be able to differentiate and control the games like this. The other day, I was quite pleased.

“The same way against Villarreal, I felt we had spells where they were controlling us, especially first half, and we weren't comfortable. But the other day, having the ball or not, I thought the team was more or less in control of the situation.”