Mignolet on bouncing back, Wolves test and FA Cup focus
Liverpool’s desire to respond positively to their first Premier League defeat of the season will be apparent against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Simon Mignolet has pledged.
The Reds travel to Molineux for the second time in a little over a fortnight on Monday for an FA Cup third-round tie.
That pre-Christmas trip to face Nunu Espirito Santo’s side resulted in a 2-0 top-flight win, but Jürgen Klopp’s league leaders head to the West Midlands this time on the back of a 2-1 loss to second-placed Manchester City.
Thursday’s narrow reverse at Etihad Stadium ended the Reds’ unbeaten run in this season’s Premier League at 20 matches - but Mignolet, who will start at Molineux, has informed Liverpoolfc.com of the determination within Klopp’s squad to get back to winning ways immediately.
Read on to hear the goalkeeper’s thoughts ahead of the beginning of Liverpool’s 2018-19 FA Cup campaign...
On the importance of bouncing back…
Yeah, obviously we’ve got a lot of games coming up and it’s always nice to respond straight away. It’s in a different competition so it’s slightly different, but I think we want to put things right. I think that’s also what was said straight after the game inside the dressing room: yeah, we lost against City in a great fixture, probably one of the best fixtures in the Premier League, but in the same way we’re still four points ahead and the one thing we can’t do is drop our heads. The way to do that is by responding and getting the victory and going through to the next round of the FA Cup.
On whether the team’s record of recovering strongly from previous setbacks this season proves their strength of character…
Exactly, and also the mindset in this moment of time. We want to win the next game. We’re only thinking about that, and we want to take it step by step. But of course, when you get a knock then you have to get up again, look forward and try to win the next match and that’s what we’ll try to do.
On the opportunity to get Thursday out of the system quickly…
The game is coming quickly to us and it’s the best way to respond, especially with the fact that we’ve been having a good go for the last couple of weeks and the longer you win, the more games you win, you actually come closer to the one game you’re going to lose. So to get back on track, we’re looking forward to the next game against Wolverhampton and to [hopefully] get in the next round.
On the special nature of the weekend of the FA Cup third round…
Yeah [and it’s] just after new year, after a very busy period as well. You look forward to [seeing] who you get drawn against. Wolves away is a tough fixture, we’ve seen that in the Premier League, and in the FA Cup it will be like that as well. So it won’t be easy but of course we want to keep fighting both in the Premier League and the Champions League and hopefully in the FA Cup as well.
On whether the focus of the squad is now completely on this tie, not the Premier League…
Exactly [that], and also after a defeat you want to put things right so that gives you an extra motivation to go into that fixture and be there again, just as we have been throughout the whole of the season. So we have to get back up and try to beat Wolverhampton.
On the last visit to Molineux proving to be tough game…
It was and there was a lot of rain that day as well! I’m not saying it’s going to be the same but it was a night game also, like we now play on Monday. They are a very good team, they play football and have got some good players. We respect that but we will try to do the same things that we did when we were there a few weeks ago and if we can get the same result we will be very happy, of course.