'It's a challenge, but let's go there and try everything'
Jürgen Klopp expects Liverpool to face a tough test at Chelsea on Friday night, but the boss has urged his team to 'go there and try everything' to get a positive result.
The Reds travel to west London on the back of their 4-1 rout of champions Leicester City at Anfield last weekend.
Stamford Bridge was the scene of Klopp’s first Premier League victory as Liverpool manager last October, when Philippe Coutinho scored twice in a memorable 3-1 win, but much has changed at Chelsea since then.
Antonio Conte is now the man in charge of the Blues and the former Juventus and Italy coach has made an impressive start to life in England, with Chelsea having taken 10 points from their opening four games of the league campaign.
But Klopp, while well aware of the quality of the opposition, feels upbeat about his side’s ability to follow up their hugely impressive win over Leicester with another strong performance.
“I’m very excited, games against Chelsea are always special things in the Premier League,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
“They’re a strong side and they’re in a good moment. I saw 90 minutes of their last game against Swansea [City, a 2-2 draw] and everybody who saw it saw they could’ve won this game!
“[They’re] competitive, physically strong, with the experience of last year - champions two years ago, then a difficult year - changing manager, all that stuff.
“The last season was not a Chelsea season, but now they are back on track. We need to be ready for a real challenge. They defend well and attack quick and strong, so it’s not the easiest job in world football [to play against them], but still we feel quite confident we can do something there.”
Watch the manager's pre-match press conference in full
Klopp was also quizzed on the similarities between Conte’s emotional goal celebrations and his own, but the German preferred to focus on his opposite number’s managerial credentials before insisting Friday night’s match will be decided on the pitch, not in the technical areas.
“I don’t know Antonio well enough to say why [he celebrates] but he looks quite emotional when they don’t score!” Klopp added.
“Obviously he’s involved in the game, but that’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is that he’s a great manager, a successful manager, something like the Pep Guardiola of Turin if you like - he created their [Juventus’] special style of play and had a very successful time there.
“He was very successful with the Italian national team and it’s quite impressive what he’s done until now. But I don’t play against Antonio Conte and I’m glad about that because he was a great player!
“I know about our respect for Chelsea, and I’m pretty sure it’s exactly the same from their side. They’ve seen us and they know we are not easy to play.
“That’s what I’ve thought about this week. There’s always a way to create moments they are not expecting.
“It’s exciting - it’s a game you can look forward to. Friday night, Chelsea… it sounds good! Let’s go there and try everything. We have a challenge and we want to go there and we want to create real problems for them. We want to be strong and get a result.
“I feel good when I think about it - that doesn’t mean anything unfortunately - but I’m looking forward to it.”