Jürgen Klopp on Brendan Rodgers, Leicester and confidence
Jürgen Klopp assessed the challenge awaiting Liverpool at Leicester City as he detailed his side's commitment to 'fighting through the situation'.
The Reds journey to King Power Stadium for Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off aiming to respond after back-to-back home defeats last week.
At his pre-match press conference on Friday, Klopp was quizzed about Leicester – who currently sit one place above Liverpool in the Premier League table.
The manager also discussed the mood at the AXA Training Centre this week and how he can influence the confidence of his players.
Read a summary of his replies below…
On the mood in the Liverpool squad at the moment…
As good as it can be or as good as it should be. It’s not that we have like a bad or aggressive or blaming or whatever mood – not at all. We came into this situation all together, we know some reasons and we are in it together. Absolutely together. There’s nothing really to worry about or whatever, that we now point the finger at each other and say it’s because of you or because of you. We want to sort it together and we will sort it together. There’s nothing bad to say about the atmosphere. We are not flying or whatever, that we can’t stop laughing during the week, obviously. But it’s a completely normal mood, how it should be.
On his respect for Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers…
I got a message this week obviously, but it was not about the game, of course. We don’t have a lot of contact, we saw each other maybe more often than in other seasons because we had a lot of Zoom meetings with the Premier League coaches. He looks good, healthy – that’s what is most important. I couldn’t respect his work more than I do. I’ve said it before, I can say it now and everybody can see it again because of the situation in the table: the job he is doing, they are doing there is really, really good. They have a really strong group together there, a really good squad together; had some problems injury-wise as well and came through properly. And are now a real competitor, that’s how it is and that’s how we see the game.
On whether Leicester have become ‘mentally stronger’ this season…
How can I know? But probably yes because going through a situation like they had last year is for sure not helpful in that season, but for the next season for sure if you are smart enough to use this information – and Brendan and the players are for sure smart enough. Yes, for sure, it was helpful they were in a similar situation. Probably slightly disappointing that they couldn’t make the Champions League last year but it was always clear, as long as they don’t lose players, they can add on and they did again good business, to be honest. Brought in really good players – full-backs, centre-half and all these kind of things. Up front, Albrighton looks like he doesn’t get older, Vardy the same. Barnes is probably one of the biggest talents; not sure if he is already as much respected or appreciated as he should be, he’s an unbelievable player, to be honest, and a proper Leicester product. Midfield, Tielemans, all these guys. It’s just a really good set-up and that’s what makes them so strong.
On how he helps his players get rhythm and confidence back…
Look, it’s normal if you don’t get week in, week out all the results, it’s normal that a few things drop. The rhythm is difficult because some players have rhythm because they play constantly. Others don’t have the rhythm and we have to make decisions when we bring them in and stuff like this. But you know some reasons why it’s not so easy.
And the confidence, I saw a very confident team in the last few weeks, I saw a very confident team against Manchester City, which is one of the most difficult football games in the world. I know it’s maybe not appropriate to speak about a good game when you lost 4-1, but for us it’s obviously very important what we saw there in all the other situations. We didn’t lose this game because we played badly, we lost it because we made individual mistakes; that can happen as well and leads to the same result, but it’s a different kind of reason.
And so if you think now about Brendan Rodgers and Leicester, how they will prepare for us. Do they prepare for a team without confidence and without rhythm? I don’t think so. They saw for sure the last game and know that if they let us do a few things then we will be really dangerous for them. And that’s exactly what we try to do, even when we have to change again. And we will try it again, that’s just the job to do. That’s how we always saw it.
I think I spoke once or so about confidence, and I was not really happy afterwards that I opened that box. But it was what I saw that day. Then I spoke once about being fatigued. That’s all actually gone, to be honest. It doesn’t mean that it cannot happen again – because it’s a really tough situation – but the only thing you really can do is to fight through a situation like this, because nobody will help you. It’s not that people will roll the ball in front of the goal and you have to make the last touch. You have to work for all these situations; you have to defend on the highest level and you have to attack on the highest level, and in between you have to play proper football. And that’s what we are and that’s what we did, without getting the results always, that’s clear. And without performing always on our highest level, for sure as well. But I saw a lot of good signs in the last weeks which show me that we are not too far away.
On the benefits of a week of training without a midweek game…
Yeah, but we have to prove it on Saturday. Of course, good training sessions so far, today a very important training session where we really go through pretty much everything again – not long, but nice and sharp and these kind of things. That’s what you usually don’t have, but it’s not only us, we know that. This week a lot of other teams played because they were still in the FA Cup and they were incredibly intense games, even with extra-time and all these things. It was a better week to train, for sure, than other weeks. But we have to make sure we are ready on Saturday. Leicester played on Wednesday but made a lot of changes obviously for their game, so we just have to be ready.