Klopp on Daniel Sturridge, Sunderland and improvement
Jürgen Klopp previewed Saturday's Barclays Premier League clash against Sunderland with a press conference at Melwood on Friday afternoon, in which he answered questions about Daniel Sturridge, the Black Cats and improving the Reds' attacking play. Here's what he had to say...
On Daniel Sturridge…
If somebody wants to ask me something they have heard about Daniel Sturridge then you can ask me, but not suggestions – I am not interested in this. Absolutely nothing. Daniel is back in training, and that's great, since two days [ago]. Everything looks good in this moment. Now it is normal football training, which is really good for us and for him. Obviously there were a few problems in the past with injuries, not only since I've been here, so that's a part of the truth. But now, this is [the] past and it would be cool if we could leave it there and can start from now on. I don't know exactly when it was, but what I said Daniel needs – like each player needs – is consistent training – training, training, training. That's normal to be fit for Premier League football, that's all. We tried everything we could to bring [him] into the shape and now we are in the moment where we hopefully can get the benefit of this work, and that's all. It's not a story. How can it be a story? You cannot create stories and then ask me. If somebody wants to say something then please write your name under it and don't suggest something – that's not too cool. It's no story, so it's absolutely not frustrating. It's not interesting.
On Sunderland...
They have a few changes in the squad, they made a few transfers – and good transfers, to be honest. It will be a different team. They played absolutely OK against Manchester City, that's not too easy and everybody knows that in the league. They took a good portion of confidence out of this game, so that's what we will feel I think. But we want – and have – to do better than we did [at] Leicester because we were absolutely not satisfied with our performance. You have to strike back and that's what we have to do – it's not too important who is the opponent. We are at home and we need these points, that's what everybody has to know. Sunderland are maybe better or different than before, but we have to be too.
On improving attacking...
First of all, the main part is that we can talk about it because we don't have time to train – how could we when we [play every] three days? I don't want to complain about it, it is like it is so it's not possible at this stage to say 'come on, you take five sessions and work on this' because we have all these games after two sessions. These two sessions are usually recovery sessions, that's the thing. My feeling after Leicester was that with a few better decisions we could have had a completely different result. Today we have a session where we [will] try to work on it, but first of all everybody – especially the players – knows that of course they can do better. It's not a problem of quality, it's in the moment where you have to open your eyes and decide which is the best option. That's what we did not [do] at Leicester as we shot in a few moments where it was not the best choice and sometimes our crosses were not clear enough to make something. The best thing about football is that you can do better without training because of the quality the players have – and that's what we will try.
On his team needing to be tougher...
It's not only my team that's always like this. Two weeks ago we spoke about Norwich and the character and mentality [in] striking back. Then we played the Leicester game, they're top of the table and they were not better than we were on this evening, I think everybody could see. But at the end Jamie Vardy's first goal was not really a chance, only a goal that's good for him. I didn't like the second goal. I saw it 20 times after, with slipping and things like this. [It was an] unlucky situation, it was not our best day and what you could see in this moment was that confidence makes a difference sometimes. They [Leicester] didn't care about what we were doing too much when we had our chances, they didn't change anything because they have the experience this year of [knowing] the other team will get chances but if we [Leicester] get one then we probably will use it. That's the big difference between a lot of teams and Leicester this year. It was not the game I would have [liked to have] seen but it was like it was and now we have the next chance, that's the most important thing. I think we don't have to talk every week about completely different things. I was asked after the game if I'd like to see the intensity of Leicester in my team but we ran four kilometres more than them – maybe they made it up a lot in a few better ways, that's possible. It's not always about more, it's about decision-making, but it's not only to talk about. We have to do it and we know about it. I think it's one of the last steps we have to do but it's a big step. If we can do this then results will change.