Klopp assesses Genk challenge, Reds' focus and late comebacks
Jürgen Klopp predicts Genk will aim to ‘strike back’ at Anfield on Tuesday night, but insists there is no chance of any complacency from Liverpool in the Champions League encounter.
The Reds have their sights set on bolstering their qualification hopes with a win in the Group E tie after securing a 4-1 victory over Felice Mazzu’s side in Belgium a fortnight ago.
Nevertheless, ‘a proper shift’ is what will be required from his side, according to Klopp, if they’re to collect maximum points in a group he believes remains wide open after three matchdays.
And while journalists asked the manager during the pre-match press conference whether Sunday’s top-of-the-table Premier League clash with Manchester City would present any kind of distraction, his response was unequivocal as he heaped praise upon his squad’s focus levels.
Read on for a summary of Klopp’s media briefing at Anfield on Monday…
On VAR…
I think you all expected a proper improvement from VAR. I still think that’s possible. We all expected as well there will be a couple of problems in the beginning. I was not in Germany when they started VAR, but I am still pretty close and realised in the first year it was difficult there as well, but it is getting better and better and better. They do some things different to England as well; not better or worse, just different. There were some moments when it was clear offside, clear handball and all that stuff and you say, ‘OK, that’s why we wanted it’ or because we want clarification, that’s all. When it came up, we thought, ‘OK, good’ – good decisions, sometimes for you, sometimes against you but the right decision. I think in the moment we discuss much more after games about ref decisions than we did without VAR and I don’t think that was the real reason for it, so it’s clear we have to obviously improve that all together. I think that is on its way, a couple of meetings will happen. It is difficult for us to be part of meetings because we have a pretty busy schedule, but as much as we can help from the football side, we will try. We will see what happens.
On the reasons behind Liverpool’s knack of scoring late goals…
There are different reasons, obviously. You can say because we have to because of the result in the game and stuff like this, we have to chase the game too often. On the other side, we are there to squeeze everything out of the 95 minutes we can. Unfortunately, we were not really often high enough up to control the game only in the last few minutes and it’s the situation. Of course, on the one side it shows a problem that we concede goals in moments when we are not two, three or four-nil up. The last three times we conceded the first goal in the game, but the good thing is it is not a massive obvious impact. It’s like it should be: it’s information and nothing else. No impact needed, just go for it. It’s never that we think before a game that we only want to score once and that should be enough and then you concede one and we think, ‘Oh my God, we can only go for a draw now’ – we want to win football games. We don’t want to stretch luck too much, but the game at Aston Villa, for example, I didn’t think 100 per cent that we would score but I was sure we would get moments if we stayed as composed as we were, as clear and as creative, as direct as we were in the second half, then we would have chances and we have to use them, obviously. That’s what the boys did in very decisive moments, that’s why we won the game, that’s why we’ve now scored twice late, against Tottenham late, Manchester United late and all of these things.
It is important, but it is about the result in the game and we had to do it, so that’s why we have that number maybe. To be 100 per cent honest, I don’t care. We have to win football games and I don’t expect perfect football games; it is not that I think it is not allowed to make a mistake. The goal we conceded against Aston Villa is a good example because it was no mistake. There was no mistake, we defend set-pieces really well usually and defended that set-piece really well, but we have to accept that Aston Villa did better than we did in that situation. A smart block on Virgil, which is usually not enough, and very good timing of the runs, which helps a lot around set-pieces. They did it really well and so they deserved that goal. It was not a mistake, you can concede goals like this in football. No problem with that, nobody needed to feel bad about it and so we carried on and in the end we did it.
On Alisson Becker saying he is ‘annoyed’ by conceding goals…
I can imagine! It is always part of development, a lot of things worked out really well in [last] season. Already it is only 11 matches in and, yes, it feels much longer, but it is only 11 games. We always try to improve, but our main target cannot be now clean sheets. We have to have clean sheets, but we have to be creative. The goals we conceded were all different. Against Tottenham, it was their first attack, deflected ball, crossbar… For me, it is more important opponents don’t create against us a lot. If they score with the one chance they have, it is not nice but it is nothing you can really work on. Of course, we don’t want to concede goals – it’s as easy as that – and as a goalkeeper, I can imagine it annoys him. In the end, he is as happy as all the others when we win the games and is not too bothered too much about the clean sheet or whatever. We will have clean sheets during the season, I am 100 per cent sure, and there will be a moment when we defend all the situations better again. Then, we still have to score goals to win the games.
On making sure the focus is on Genk and not Sunday’s clash with Manchester City…
You can say the words ‘Manchester City’, I only don’t think about them at the moment – why should I? That’s no problem. I don’t have to [tell the boys]. The story the boys wrote in the last three years was only possible because we were always focused on the next game completely with all we have. Nobody thinks [about City] in this moment – and I don’t have to tell them because I know them. Nobody has to tell the boys City are on Sunday, tomorrow is Genk. We have big ambitions in this competition and it is an open group, with still pretty much everything possible so we have to be 100 per cent spot on tomorrow night. We have to create an incredible atmosphere again, we have to make life as uncomfortable as possible for Genk, we have to make sure that we get these three points because that’s all why we’re doing this stuff. It only works if you’re 100 per cent focused on it, everybody knows that. For the people in the stadium, it is very important they are in the game tomorrow night, for the players it is very important that we do that. I don’t doubt my players at all. I really would feel a bit embarrassed if I had to tell them, ‘By the way, boys, don’t think about Manchester City already.’ I know them well enough, I don’t have to do that.
On the ‘challenge’ of the build-up to a game Liverpool are heavy favourites to win…
It’s a challenge but pretty much the best you can have because it means you are the manager of a good team, you are in an OK situation at least. That’s how it is. It took long enough for us to come into a situation like that, so I don’t now want to be in a situation where I think that’s the biggest problem in football – it’s not. Always these centre games of the group stage, you have one away, one at home. We had that last year against Red Star Belgrade and we won at home very comfortably [and then lost away]. They want to strike back, that’s how life is, how sport is, it’s 100 per cent clear that we really have to put in a proper shift tomorrow night. We started the group with maybe the most difficult game we could get, Napoli away. It was actually a good game but a bad result and that put us under pressure immediately so we had to win the next two games. We did that and now we have to use this basis tomorrow night.
That’s why we need everybody again, really. I said the group is still open and that means for Genk as well – whatever their target is now, if they want to go through the group or they want to qualify for the Europa League at least at the end, that’s still possible especially if they win tomorrow night, so they have so big targets. That’s what we have to respect and what we always did. The story in the last two years is that we were always spot on in the specific moments when it was really needed and that’s what we have to show again, otherwise we don’t have a chance and don’t deserve a chance to go far in the competition or maybe even win it in the end. You only have a chance if you really respect each opponent. That’s what we did, that’s what we will do, and then it’s still a challenge but rather a better one.
On whether he checked Genk’s result at the weekend…
Yes, they lost. Usually I do that, I don’t remember them all but in the first moment I look, I look at line-ups and stuff like this. Of course I know about Genk, I know the different line-ups, what they changed and who could play and all these things. I have all this information but actually the final analysis meeting is after the press conference and then I have all the information I need. Then we can train, and then train tomorrow morning again, and then we will play tomorrow night.
On whether his side practise comebacks in training…
I would love to say we do that all week but we don’t have too much time to train it. We trained it in the games before, if you want. You are right, all my family and friends, all of them who are close to us, tell me the same: they try to enjoy our games but it’s more nervy and exciting than it should be, in their opinion! But, to be honest, it was not that intense heart attack-wise, because you have to accept in football that if you are really good you should win the game. It’s still not clear that you will win the game, but you should win the game. We were in the first half not as good as we could [be], in the second half we were really good but the result was against us.
A couple of other things in the game were against us as well and staying then on track really shows character, mentality, don’t get bothered by things you cannot have influence on. That’s what is obviously better with a team who is working longer together, which we do meanwhile, we have a lot of players [who are] four years in, three years in, two years and all that stuff. We are not together [only for] a couple of weeks so we created together this kind of belief that we can do it. But we don’t expect that it will happen without our influence and the boys influenced it a lot. That’s why we deserved it but I can imagine then it’s pretty hard to follow us and I’m sorry for that! But at least at the end most of the time there was some relief and that’s good.
On Genk’s record of producing talent from their youth system and whether he sees any players in the current side who could emulate the likes of Origi, De Bruyne and Koulibaly…
I will not make a mistake and put a proper backpack on a young player’s back from another club. I will not do that with the Genk players as well, but that’s a proper club, a really nice story. When we played there we saw all the pictures who played there and I thought in that moment, ‘Thank God they are not all here and we play them!’ Not that I didn’t respect the players that are there, but this is really an unbelievable group of players which they send all over the world. That says a lot about the character of the club and the teams they create always. Last year, becoming champions, which is an incredible success. Losing players, key players, again but still staying on track, try it again, make new decisions, bringing in new players.
That’s such a wonderful story, to be honest, but unfortunately we are not here to show our admiration or how much we admire stories like this. We have to beat them and that’s what we will try, but I respect clubs like this a lot and it’s sensational. There will in the future be more names coming from there because if you have this kind of direction as a club it brings in other young kids who want to do the same. They have their own models out there in the world of football and it’s important obviously. Imagine the world of football, how it would be without all these wonderful players born or raised or educated at Genk. That’s not that nice so we enjoy a lot what they do in the world of football and that’s cool. Thank you very much, Genk!