Klopp plays down fears over Anfield form
Jürgen Klopp has urged Liverpool not to worry too much about their recent home form when they face Bordeaux, insisting he has seen plenty of signs that good results are just around the corner.
The Reds go into Thursday's Europa League group stage fixture having won just three of their 10 outings at Anfield so far this season.
And the last appearance on home soil for Klopp's team, a Barclays Premier League clash with Crystal Palace, ended in a surprise 2-1 defeat for the hosts.
By contrast, both Chelsea and Manchester City have been put to the sword in the two away games preceding a return to European action this week.
But, speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of the visit of Bordeaux, the manager revealed he has few concerns about his side's home form.
"Usually in football it’s not the biggest difference [between home and away] and you should not make a bigger point of [home form] than it is," Klopp said.
"We knew about the results, but that’s all. What we have to develop, in the first case, is our performance, and that's what we did in the last weeks.
"Football is a results game and everybody is talking about the result against Palace and I heard that Crystal Palace deserved to win.
"If they make two goals and you make one goal then maybe right. But you saw the game and only the first 15 minutes were bad, the rest was okay or better, enough to usually win.
"Many things we saw in the game were better than things before. Our 30 minutes after the start were better and that's what you have to take in a long way of development.
"We have to talk about the bad things but also talk about the good things and keep the good things and try to bring them to the next game.
"There's not the biggest difference between home and away games and it means that we are in a good way to play better at home.
"We created chances, that’s the most important thing. It’s not easy to play against us - most goals we conceded were set plays - it's not easy to create chances against us.
"That's important so you can take more and more stability and you can play football and that's what we try to do.
"The intensity of this number of tournaments, sometimes you pay the price, and I would say Crystal Palace was more because of that than something else.
"We also have to learn how to handle this. We have in this team not the biggest experience of this.
"That’s all we do, but we know what we have to do tomorrow."
The 4-1 thrashing of Manchester City last weekend provided arguably both the best result and performance of Klopp's tenure thus far.
However, the German is sure his team can do even better in the future, as they continue to adapt to his ways of working.
"We came here with another idea of football - that's a fact," he added.
"Now we try to train on this and at the end it's up to the players whether they want to do this or not because I cannot make them do it under pressure.
"The players understand why it's better do more but it's not always more, it's only the right thing in the right moment, it's the point that we try to get better and better the last weeks.
"That's what you saw at Man City, it worked, but it was not [perfect]. There were brilliant moments but it was far, far, far away from perfect - the end result is great but there are many things we can do better.
"When we work longer together, when we train more often together, that's all the things the player has to do."
The Reds boss also shared his views on his Bordeaux counterpart Willy Sagnol, who starred for Bayern Munich in his playing days before moving into the dugout.
Klopp was adamant, however, that both men will have far less influence on tomorrow's result than the players.
“Willy Sagnol was one of the best full-backs I ever saw," he continued.
"He played sometimes, a kind of German style - whatever that is! Of course, I know him better as a player than I know him as a manager because we never met each other on the sidelines.
"To be honest, I have not seen too much of Bordeaux before I knew that we would play against them, now I know much more about them.
"But I think it’s not too important who is at the sideline tomorrow.
"The players will decide the result. [Sagnol] was a world-class full-back, I was a non-league full-back - we will see what works better!”