Lucas targets next step against Rubin Kazan
Lucas Leiva explained how Liverpool will try to take the next step in their development under Jürgen Klopp against Rubin Kazan on Thursday night – here are the key points from the Brazilian's pre-match preview.
How has life been over the last week working with the new manager?
I can’t say anything bad! [Laughs] It has been really good, really positive. Last week we had a few days to work, and the game against Spurs was positive. Of course we didn’t win, but it was a little step in the way we want to go. Everyone is really looking forward to keeping working, keeping improving as a team and as players as well.
What has been different about the way this manager works with the team, and are you confident that he’s going to bring the best out of you?
That’s what we hope. We want to be a successful team and he has been successful where he worked before. It’s always a comparison between managers, it’s normal, but he has his own ideas, his own style, and his approach in the last week has been very good and very demanding. As a team we have a very honest group – we want to improve. That’s the main thing. If you want to improve, listen and adapt as soon as possible, the better it will be. All the ideas that he has been giving us, we are trying to take on board and put on the pitch as soon as possible.
You talk about hope for the season now. There’s a real buzz about this place. Do you sense that around the city as well, that enthusiasm?
Everyone is really excited. Tomorrow will be the first game under [the manager] at Anfield. European nights are always special at Anfield and I think tomorrow is going to be a really good atmosphere. But there are no targets for us at the moment, we just want to go game by game and improve as a team. Hopefully at the end of the season it will be a successful season. There is no pressure on the team at the moment in terms of achieving things. Of course, we need to do the best we can and we’ll see where it’s going to take us.
You said there’s no pressure on the team, but how important could a good run in Europe be?
Winning always gives you confidence to go forward and to keep good momentum as well. That’s what we’re going to do tomorrow. Every game we go 100 per cent and try to win. When I said there’s no pressure, of course there is always pressure in football, but if we add more than we should it won’t help. We just have to be focused, concentrate and improve again tomorrow and show another little step in the right direction. That’s the key at the moment.
Do you feel there’s a big result coming up? The wins you’ve had this season have been quite narrow – do you think there’s a release potentially coming up?
Of course you always want to win football matches comfortably but we know everyone has quality and it’s always hard to win easily. There are no easy games. You just need to approach the game the same way we approached the last game – a little step, improve the way we want to play in the future and hopefully it will be a successful game for us tomorrow.