Press conference | Klopp on Palace, Salah, Mane, rotation and more
Jürgen Klopp covered a wide array of topics during his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon.
The boss addressed the media ahead of Liverpool's Premier League meeting with Crystal Palace and was asked about subjects including Mohamed Salah's contract, Patrick Vieira's early work at Selhurst Park, squad rotation and Sadio Mane's form.
Read Klopp's update on Roberto Firmino's fitness here and scroll down for our press conference round-up...
On Salah’s contract…
Look, there is nothing really to say about it, especially not from me because I’m not involved. So no [update to report]. Obviously the only thing I am really interested in is how Mo looks, how sharp he is, how committed he is in the moment and that’s absolutely spot on, really good, and that’s everything. Nothing new to say about it.
On what difference he sees in Palace under new manager Vieira…
Massive. A proper football-playing side I have to say and he has obviously a clear idea how he wants to set it up, you can see that. He brought in new players, used them. I always said it’s incredible how strong they are up-front with all the players they have: now [Odsonne] Edouard came in and scored twice, obviously had anyway quite a decent scoring record. [Jordan] Ayew, [Christian] Benteke, the boy from Mainz and [Wilfried] Zaha obviously. So that’s incredible quality and now in midfield, [Cheikhou] Kouyate back in his position, [Conor] Gallagher – I’m not sure you can still say he’s a talent when he plays for [England] U21s, but he’s a really, really good player, and then the third position [James] McArthur or whoever can play there. It’s a decent team with a real football-playing idea. So, it’s a change and they will do well I’m pretty sure - but we want to, and have to, do well as well so tomorrow hopefully we can do that.
On squad rotation and whether managing players’ fitness is becoming a bigger challenge…
Yeah, [that’s] clear. We spoke a lot of the schedule and stuff like this but this [having three games a week] is normal for us, but the Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday thing is a tough one and the shortest one you can get in a normal week. You have to think about these kind of things, we did that [for the AC Milan game] and thank God we came through. I really thought the boys did really well and we will have to make changes again, that’s clear.
Inside Training: Watch the Reds' Palace preparations
On whether he has drawn any early-season conclusions from how the top of the Premier League looks currently…
Now that’s not a big surprise [that few points have been dropped]. I’m really not too much in the situation of other teams but for us it was an OK start so far with some good football the boys showed. That’s important. But how I said, if you want to be up there in the middle or around the top spot then we cannot waste any points pretty much, that’s how it is nowadays in the Premier League. So, nothing happened, we just have to keep going and I am not surprised about the results of the other teams, to be honest. They are all really good and so we have to be really good as well.
On Mane’s form…
Sadio looks really good, he looks really sharp. I know we talk about these things when a striker misses some chances, but that he has the amount of chances he has, the amount of finishes he has, that’s actually the important stuff. Sadio is in a good moment; a really good moment physically and mentally as well, so really confident and you can see that. A player misses a chance and doesn’t look desperate or whatever, he has a smile on his face and he knows, ‘I could have done this or this better…’ and all these kind of things. It's all good for the moment but Sadio is an exceptional player so he has to perform exceptional because this is the standard we expect from him and he usually delivers.
On what he made of Divock Origi’s character after his start and performance against AC Milan…
Exactly what you think now as well – it was absolutely exceptional, coming in and playing like this is really good, really good. We play a lot of games now, but we train as well pretty often, especially in the last few weeks with the international break. Div was not involved in that so he was with us, he could train with us and he could show up and we could see what shape he is in at the moment. For each player in the world it is like that, for all weeks you’re not exactly in the same shape, but he was really coming up and showed up in training and that's why I decided to start him in the game. Then there is still the possibility that it is maybe not so easy and stuff like this, but he was really focused on the game. He didn't think about whether he had played the last 10 games or not, he was just in the game and played a really good game. He helped us a lot, not only offensively but defensively as well – and the nice little chip for Mo was obviously an incredibly important moment. I am really happy for him. He had cramps at the end of the game, so we have to see what that means for tomorrow, but he looked really good.
On the importance of having options for the midfield positions…
It's important because it's the engine room of our game. The intensity we put on the pitch, if we have a tired midfield it doesn’t work. So it's very important that we have the numbers and the quality, especially, of the players. They are all back, some of them trained longer, some of them didn’t train that long. We have to see, lots of games coming up but very good news they are all fit in the moment.