Jürgen Klopp on Atletico Madrid, Salah's Ballon d'Or chances, Firmino and more
Jürgen Klopp touched on a range of topics when previewing Liverpool's Champions League encounter with Atletico Madrid.
Prior to flying out to the Spanish capital, the Reds boss answered questions from journalists at a press conference on Monday afternoon.
Klopp discussed the unique challenge of facing Diego Simeone's side, Mohamed Salah's chances of winning the 2021 Ballon d'Or and plenty more.
Read on for a summary of the manager's pre-match media briefing...
On Salah's chances of winning the Ballon d'Or and whether he is now getting the recognition he deserves...
Yes, I have no idea how you win the Ballon d'Or, to be honest. If it's about being in the Champions League final, scoring the most goals, stuff like this, then it could be slightly difficult maybe. But if it's about performances over the last two years, then he has a chance from my point of view. But I'm not too much in the competition, so [I don't] understand exactly how it works. Does he get now the recognition finally? Look, internally he's always got it. Externally, I don't know. You can answer that much better than I can. But that after the two goals he scored, now people think all of a sudden that he could be the best player in the world is a bit strange. He's scored goals like this before and he's performed for years on an incredibly high level. My concern is, first and foremost, that he will do it again and again and again and again – what he did so far. But whatever you want to write positively about it, do it, he deserves it. But now let's prepare Atletico.
On the importance of these two upcoming games with Atletico...
Yes, if you win both games against Atletico in that group then it's pretty likely that you go through – that was clear from the beginning, I would say. But we didn't even play the first one and we lost last time both games against Atletico. I'm a very positive person but I'm not that positive or naive that I think these games are already in our pocket. It's a tough place to go, we know that. Last time when we played there we [conceded] an early goal and after that we had a lot of possession but not-good-enough chances, because we played not really that well. We learned a lot between the two games. [The] second game was an exceptionally good game in the most difficult circumstances I ever played football. We played an outstanding match but it was the last one for a long, long time. We lost it, that was not nice but it was not really important that night, it didn't feel important anymore that night.
So, now the world is in a better place again, not safe but in a better place. Hopefully we can use the things we learn from the two games we played against them, even though they changed a lot since then. They play [a] different system, changed a lot of players. So, we face a different but not a weaker animal. They became Spanish champions last year, so that's not an easy thing to do. Some of the core of the players are still together for a while, so they know how to win football games and that's what they will try tomorrow.
On Liverpool's away record this season, scoring at least three goals in the last six matches on the road...
Didn't really think about it. It's performance, opponent and story of the match, let me say it like this. That's why we did it probably. That's never easy, it was for sure not easy but we really don't think about it. If you wouldn't tell me, I wouldn't know it because I wouldn't think about where we scored the goals, when we scored the goals. But we never made a big difference between away and home games. We enjoy it more at home – that's true – because we are in our dressing room, in our stadium, with our people around and a lot of them and they are all in good shape, all excited to see us again and stuff like this. That's what we love about our home games, but we never really made a big difference with away games. But now it's Atletico and scoring three goals doesn't sound too likely now in a game against Atletico – I'm not sure if they ever conceded three goals, to be honest! But it's not about that. We want a positive result and a positive performance. That's what we are thinking about in the moment, and not the final result.
On Roberto Firmino potentially making his 300th Liverpool appearance on Tuesday...
Bobby was massive for our development as a team, absolutely. He is obviously a key player, the connector of all the different pieces on the pitch very often. He didn't have a proper pre-season, then getting injured – that's now not too helpful obviously. But the three goals from the weekend, for sure, will help him a lot. I think I was never shy of putting praise on Bobby Firmino and his importance, so maybe if you forgot that then go back and I recall something where I said a lot of nice things about Bobby because he deserved it. He's our false nine and on top of that a very, very important player.
On how the challenge of facing Atletico is different to any other and it being a real football battle every time you face them...
It is, but it's not the only team you face. The problem that you have with Atletico, they are probably the best of them. So that means they have the best players in their hand, the best manager. So if you play Sevilla, for example, it was similar, it's a similar atmosphere, it's a similar fight, it's a proper, proper fight. The problem with Atletico is the mix of the quality they have and desire they show. I said it now before, would it be the exact style I want to play? No, but I couldn't. I'm not the person for it, I could not ask for it. But we are all different and that's why it's completely fine. It's not about me to judge it or whatever, we have to face it and we will face it. We played at home – it's obviously all about winning football games – but we played an exceptional game at home against Atletico, absolutely exceptional. So, we didn't forget how bad we were there. I'm pretty sure Atletico didn't forget how good we were at home. There is a way to cause them problems but you have to play a top-class game and you have to be incredibly brave. If you don't do that, they eat you – and that's what we should avoid.