Jürgen Klopp Q&A | Chelsea, transfer window, Elliott and more
Jürgen Klopp was quizzed on a wide range of topics during Friday's pre-match press conference.
Liverpool's manager spoke to the media from the AXA Training Centre ahead of his team's meeting with Chelsea.
Read on for our round-up of Klopp's press conference...
On what he is expecting from the game and whether it could be an early indicator in terms of the title race…
I expect a very difficult game for both teams, I don’t think there is an easy way through any line. Both teams are really well organised, and will be I’m pretty sure, so it will be a big fight, definitely. It’s one of these games that I would watch 100 per cent if I would not be involved. It’s pretty much a must-watch game, if you want. Chelsea are obviously in a really good moment, won the Champions League in the last club game of last season, played an incredible, I don’t know, last half of the season since Thomas [Tuchel] was in [they have] really developed in the right direction. They brought now [Romelu] Lukaku in, which doesn’t make them worse, obviously. So, it’s a tough opponent but we are not actually in the worst moment as well and hopefully we can show that.
On the final days of the transfer window…
Do I expect a busy four days for us? Not really to be 100 per cent honest, but you never know. That’s how it is. The options didn’t get worse for some teams, that’s clear, but in the end, I said it a couple of times before, there are so many different reasons to win a football game and so many different ways to win a football game and it’s not all about bringing in new players and all this kind of stuff. Again, it’s a little bit disappointing that I always have to mention that we brought in Ibou Konate who was not a bargain or whatever, he cost money as well. But yes, all these offensive, attacking players other clubs are signing, that’s obviously something they thought they need and they had the resources to do it. That’s the situation. But we will not use that as any kind of excuse in any kind of game. We will just go for it with all we have. We have other things we can build on: we are together for a while already, in this specific case now we play at home, which must be an advantage, and these kind of things. Look, I have really no time to look at other clubs. Of course I see the news and all that stuff when they sign a player, but I really have no time to think then, ‘How can they line up, what can they do?’ When we play them, we think about that and I think that’s enough.
Inside Training: Watch the Reds prepare for Chelsea clash
On his midfield options following the departure of Georginio Wijnaldum…
Of course Gini Wijnaldum played for us an incredible amount of games, absolutely. [He’s a] great player, a top, top, top player. I watched him now in Paris once or twice in some games and it’s really like, ‘Ahh yeah, that’s Gini.’ Even when we prepare the opponent like [we do for] Chelsea and have a look at our games against Chelsea, we always see Gini running around there. We still have to get used to that. It is not only on the pitch we miss him, we miss in the dressing room really, really, really as well. But the reflex is that we lose a midfielder and don’t bring anyone in, then it must be like, ‘Now we can count our midfielders.’ If there is an area on the pitch where we have all the different skillsets: dynamic, creativity, defensive-orientated, offensive-orientated, all these kind of things, there is no gap. Again, we have players here with great skills and last weekend doesn’t mean that Harvey [Elliott] is now the saviour of our midfield ‘problem’, because we don’t have one. But if Gini is still here, Harvey probably wouldn’t have played this game. So now he played and he played well, great. I knew before there was a good chance that he would play well and he did and we have others as well.
Curtis Jones is 20 years old, played, I don’t know, 15-20 games last year - he can make and will make and has to make the next step. Naby Keita obviously didn’t play a full season so far exactly how he expects that or we could have expected it, but he had always really good games – big games we won where he started. Now he’s started this season twice. Would he have played if Gini was still here? I don’t know obviously, but maybe not. Then we have Thiago who didn’t start the games, we have Hendo who played only one of the games, we have Oxlade-Chamberlain with the dynamic you cannot buy in the moment if you wanted to buy a midfielder. And probably I forgot one - Fabinho of course. So that’s the situation and there is no need just to buy a midfielder because somebody is on the market. I cannot help you [the media] unfortunately, because obviously you are very interested, and I can sadly not help the supporters who want us to sign a player just to get somebody in and feel then, for the moment, ‘Now we did our business as well, now we should be ready.’ However, if you are really with us and really think about it, you will realise there is no real need. And if the player, the one player who is really the one who could improve all the things we spoke now about we would go for it, I promise. If we would see him.
On Thomas Tuchel…
What Thomas did at Chelsea is absolutely exceptional, I have to say. I was never in doubt about it that he would have a massive impact there. That it would go that quick? I think not even he would have expected that exactly. But he won last night the European coach of the year - and absolutely deserved. Nobody had a bigger impact last season than he had. Really deserved. I said it before, the combination of financial wealth and football knowledge is always a threat for all of us, that’s how it is. So, what they are doing is really good, no doubt about that. Thomas is an exceptional manager and coach, so all my respect.
On Harvey Elliott’s development…
Harvey is obviously the opposite of a late developer, he is a very, very early developer. He was ready to play adult football already at 16 for Fulham and Fulham was for sure not in a situation where they thought, ‘OK, let’s bring the kids.’ It was just because Scott Parker probably at that time saw him training and [thought], ‘Yeah, he could help.’ Now he is 18 and I thought last week, ‘Oh yeah, he will help in that game’ and that’s why we took the decision… he is a great player and thank God he is. All the youth coaches he had, all the coaches he had so far, had a hand in that and especially last year I think in the Championship everybody who worked there with him did an exceptional job because he made a big step last year. I was not sure about that before, when he was 17 years old and having to play in the Championship, probably the hardest second division in the world. Then he made such a big step, played the amount of games he played [and] that showed that he is not only a football talent but he seems to be a physical talent as well, that he is robust enough for all the challenges out there.