Klopp: Leicester are still hungry, but we must think about ourselves
Jürgen Klopp has praised Leicester City for retaining the hunger that made them Premier League champions - but the boss is determined to beat the Foxes today.
Liverpool host Claudio Ranieri’s side in their first home game of the season this evening, with Klopp’s team set to be roared on by 8,500 extra fans in the newly-redeveloped Main Stand.
Along with Arsenal, the Reds were one of only two clubs to defeat Leicester during their remarkable title-winning campaign, with Christian Benteke’s second-half goal enough to earn a 1-0 victory at Anfield on Boxing Day.
Both clubs started this season by taking four points from their three league games before the international break and Klopp expects the champions to provide his side with a stern test.
“Leicester, we had time over the international break to analyse them and they are still strong and it will be really competitive,” the manager told Liverpoolfc.com.
“They are still greedy [for success], they have a good attitude still so nothing happened with them becoming champions and becoming a little bit lazy - no, unfortunately not.”
Asked whether Leicester’s stunning title triumph adds to the excitement surrounding the new Premier League season, Klopp replied: “Success is very often a mixture of a few things and good people together. They made really good decisions. A little bit of luck at the beginning and then using the atmosphere in the team, around the team and whatever.
“But that was really well deserved last year and the longer the season went on everyone could see that it wasn’t a surprise.
“They are strong because there’s no other chance to perform that consistent like they did last year. It’s not possible for everyone, no. You need a kind of character, a kind of quality, all that stuff you need and good decisions.
“They will feel a difference this year - unfortunately not before our game - but after that they will play in September by the end of October something like eight games when last year they only had three or four.
“That’s always a big difference. You get nothing for not paying for it, Champions League is great for them of course but it will be different to the last season.
“But we don’t have to think about what Leicester can do, we have to think about what is possible for us and we have to use the time we have for good training, learning about our game.
“We had the first three games and the results, if you mix it up, you say at Arsenal, OK you can lose, at Burnley you have to win and Tottenham [Hotspur] you can draw. But of course everybody saw it could have been a few more [points].
“We had a good performance in the EFL Cup and we still feel in a good way, but we still feel we are not that happy.
“Before the start of the season everybody said three away games, that’s a tough start. We don’t have to think about it and we didn’t think about it but we can’t ignore it.
“We are the only team in the Premier League who played three times away in the first three games, so now we play our first game at home and now we have to start the season. That’s what we want to try and hopefully everybody can see this at 5.30pm on Saturday.”
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