Klopp on Reds' fitness levels, mentality and Cardiff trip
Jürgen Klopp believes the strong physical base Liverpool have built throughout the season ensures they can fully attack the final stages of two major competitions.
A potential seven matches remain in the campaign after the Reds beat FC Porto on Wednesday night to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League for the second year in a row.
Attention now turns towards Sunday's trip to Cardiff City, with Klopp's men looking to maintain their spot at the top of the Premier League.
The Liverpool manager held a press conference on Friday afternoon to preview the game and read on below for a summary of what he had to say.
On finding a balance between staying relaxed and remaining geared up...
That’s what we do the whole season already, it's not a big challenge. It's always a challenge but it's not anymore because we are used to that. Playing a season like we played, during the weeks it's always pretty positive and then you have to be ready at the weekend. It's massive games and none of them are won before we started, before the first whistle. I think a lot of [people] think in the moment about Liverpool and then you think immediately about Barcelona. But before Barcelona is Cardiff and Huddersfield and that's exactly the same importance to us than the other game after that. So it's just interesting, an interesting period - positive of course, weather is brilliant, so that's all good. But we know there’s a massive job to do at the weekend.
On whether excitement helps put aside potential tiredness...
We are not tired. It’s the decisive period of the season. It was last year like this, it is this year like this. That’s good. That we are involved in two more competitions is a sign for success. It's not the success, but it's success that we are still in the Champions League and in the title race. We are not tired, we recover. As you can imagine, training is really low intensity in the moment because we cannot do a lot, but we don’t have to do a lot as well because the boys know it. The most important sessions in the week are the games we play. Then we have today a session and a little one tomorrow, a little one and then we go to Cardiff, make the analysis and work and go for it. How I said, we create a basis, basis, basis, but there's a moment when you have to use the basis - and we are in that. That means for us, because of another very, very, very strong team in the league, we have to win all our games. In Champions League it’s anyway like this, you have to win pretty much all the games to go through. Nothing changed since July 2018. We are in it and we want to win it.
On his players thriving in big occasions...
It's a super group. The boys are really close together but, believe it or not, the mood and atmosphere in the dressing room of City, for sure, of Tottenham, of United, of Chelsea, Arsenal is good as well - and all the others, and Cardiff probably as well. It's all about how you mix up your potential with attitude. We have, obviously, a really good football team with good players and mixing it up with a world-class attitude makes you a difficult-to-play team. That's all what we need. We did that from the first day of the season and so far it worked out. How I said, we are all aware of the difficulties of Sunday because Cardiff is a team who is used to defending with all they have and then have outstanding set-pieces, a lot of physical power and all that stuff. That can make life uncomfortable as well. I understand that you all want to talk about the positives of the season and all that stuff - it's cool - but we don't think about that. We don't come in the dressing room and [are] still talking about Porto or already talking about Barcelona. We are really in the situation. We can talk about everything after the season. In the moment, we only talk about the next opponent, the next challenge, the next chance, the next opportunity - and that's Cardiff.
On facing Neil Warnock's side on the weekend...
We will probably have the ball a bit more than Cardiff and that's what we have to use. We have to be very careful about counter-attacks, we have to be very careful about always [being] concentrated because each set-piece will be a proper scoring opportunity for Cardiff. It will be difficult. We have to play against a lot of players, I think, in blue shirts around the box, that's how it is. We should expect that, but not only there. They are now in a good moment. A lot of people thought a couple of weeks ago Cardiff [were] done and they got results. They were really unlucky against Chelsea, that was unbelievably unlucky and they went 1-0 up and then the first goal - we all saw it - was a clear offside and then came the second goal as well. They had nearly three points and in the end had nil, so they responded on that really well. That’s impressive. I think the whole city fights for the league and we will go there and have to face it. We will face that and, if we are prepared, then we still can get a result I think.
On whether the squad are now reaping the benefits of various training camps throughout the season...
We do what we can to train with the boys in exactly the right way. That's very individual nowadays. The pre-season is more for the whole group and to do some tactical stuff, combined with some physical stuff. But then during the year the fitness department around the sessions, what they do before and after - pre-activation and all that stuff - that makes the difference obviously. The boys are obviously, but all football players are physically skilled as well - their bodies respond pretty well on training. On the other hand side, if you go for a big goal then you don't feel anything. It's like a marathon and if you are at kilometre 40 and still up front then you don’t think about the 40 kilometres you had already in your legs. You only think that there's only two more to come and go. That's probably rather like we feel in the moment.