Jürgen Klopp on PL title race, Diogo Jota and creating an atmosphere
Jürgen Klopp discussed the impact Diogo Jota's arrival has had on Liverpool's forward options and the return of supporters to Anfield in the build-up to his side's clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
A total of 2,000 fans will be in attendance at L4 on Sunday evening for the first time since March to watch the Premier League champions take on Nuno Espirito Santo's team.
The fixture could also be Jota's first meeting with Wolves since he made the switch to Merseyside from Molineux back in September.
Klopp touched on a number of those talking points when facing the media ahead of Sunday's game. Read on for a summary of what he had to say...
On the title race and whether there would be bigger pressure if chasing teams at the top...
I don't feel in the moment that we chase anybody or somebody chases us. If I watch football games then I see that Tottenham is obviously doing pretty well, that Chelsea for me in the moment looks like the favourite – bigger squad, great players, play football. Now they are full in and have unbelievable opportunities to change between the games and from one game to the other. That's it. You watch it but we don't chase them. We play them when we play them and that was how we saw it last year as well. Pressure is there but it's about yourself. The pressure is there to win the game and we want to win against Wolves. We play only Wolves that weekend and nobody else, so all the others can play against each other or not and then they will collect points. It's always like this. It's much too early to think about who is ahead of who or whatever. It's just the situation. I said it before, this season is not about setting a target and going for it, it's about getting through it with the best possible football you can play – and that's what we try to do. That differs from weekend to midweek sometimes because of some circumstances, but it's still the target for us all the time. Be fully focused on the next game, the next opponent, especially not that early about other results.
On how Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino have dealt with Jota's arrival...
Like they do, no problem. He's doing exceptionally well at the moment, absolutely. But to keep that standard we have to work really hard, we have to keep him in a good shape, score goals because the other boys do that usually. That's clear. For us, the most important thing was that we don't have to bite our nails pretty much in each game and hope they somehow come through and we can bring them in the next game again – especially not in this season. That's not a real lateral situation because it's only one player and, how I said, it's the only line – the front three line – where we have more players than we can line up in one game, I would say. All other positions are pretty much, who can walk will play or will be a kid. Both is fine. But there's nothing bad in that situation. Who they are, they wouldn't be where they are if they couldn't deal with a situation like that. They are completely fine with Diogo and Diogo is fine with them. They are overly happy that he had that brilliant start, as I am obviously. But now that's already gone and we have to carry on.
On how his players performed in behind-closed-doors fixtures...
I expected that because that's what we have to do. I love a full stadium, I really love it – the energy, everything. It's great. For me, it's not to compare with any other event. This is what I enjoy most of all other things I like as well. But our job is to play the best football we can. When a stadium is against you in an away game, for example, it's our job to do. In a stadium when they all support you, it's still our job to do. You still have to bring it on the pitch. And in an empty stadium, you have to do it. There's no reason not to do it. But I'm happy with a lot of the performances. What we asked ourselves for was that we have to now create the atmosphere alone on the pitch and the boys did it quite often – not always, but often. Now it's a little bit different but we still have to do the job ourselves and see how much support we get because we don't know yet, we will see. Hopefully I can say more about that after the game.