Klopp details positive Melwood meeting ahead of Villa clash
Jürgen Klopp detailed a positive and productive meeting at Melwood on Friday morning as Liverpool turned their attentions to Sunday’s Anfield encounter with Aston Villa.
The Reds were beaten 4-0 at Manchester City on Thursday night in their first game since being crowned Premier League champions.
Afterwards, Klopp conceded his side were punished for errors by a clinical home team, but felt there were some positives that could be taken from how his players performed at Etihad Stadium.
And having addressed the good and the bad of the game with the squad after the fixture, Liverpool’s focus this morning was firmly on their return to Anfield this weekend.
Klopp told his pre-match press conference: “I was not in too good a mood after the game, I was not in a good mood when I went to bed, I was not in a really good mood when I woke up and then I arrived at Melwood and I was in a really good mood.
“I asked myself why and it’s because it is here we change the things – and it is exactly what we do.”
He continued: “I love Melwood, but it is not the history of the building – it is because we are together, it’s that we are together and work on solutions for the problems we have. That’s the reason - I love Melwood but if we would have met in my house, I would have said that’s where we change the things.
“When we are together, we can start changing the things again. That’s exactly what we do with it. We had a meeting this morning obviously where we spoke about us, the situation, the good things, the bad things, the challenges and all that stuff.
“After that, the boys recovered - recovery doesn’t mean they lay on a bed and get a massage, they have a lot of stuff to do to make sure the muscles are ready as quickly as possible. Then we had a training session with the guys who were not that much involved last night and that was good.
“Now I can start thinking really about how we go into the Aston Villa game and make the line-up – that is what I mean when I say here is the spot where we change the things. It was always like this.”
Journalists asked Klopp for further insight into how his post-match addresses differ to the pre-game meetings he holds with his players.
Specifically, the manager was queried on how much of his talks centred around what could be bettered from the last outing.
Klopp replied: “I don’t use that, I never used things like this in pre-match meetings, I use them in post-match meetings. It means after the game we speak about what was right and wrong, but in the pre-match meeting we prepare for the next game.
“There is no time for worrying about things we did not right in the last game; it’s not like constantly saying, ‘Here we did that… we had that problem and that problem… if we have that today again…’ and stuff like this.
“So, in the post-match meeting we make a resumé of the last game pretty much and if there are positives, I mention them because I am not from a newspaper or something like that, I don’t have to put the finger in only one direction and make a headline. I have to write the full article if you want and that’s what I try to do.
“If there are positives, I mention them. If there are negatives, I mention them if I think it is necessary. If I know they know already, if it was so obvious, then maybe I don’t mention them.
“The pre-match meeting is about the next game and it’s about what we have to do in this game. We would have had to do that if we had won the last game as well, so there is no difference, it is just about preparing this game with the special needs of the game and the opponent, nothing else.”
