Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on Chelsea, showing a reaction, Jones return and more

The Reds’ opening game of 2022 sees them head to Stamford Bridge in a contest between second and third in the Premier League.

Take a look at the boss’ pre-match comments below…

On how important this game is to both teams as they look to catch Manchester City at the top of the table...

The only chance to catch anybody who is ahead of you is to win your football games, and that's now not so easy. We play against Chelsea, a proper football team, might have similar issues like we have – I'm not 100 per cent in the frame what exactly the situation is at Chelsea but that's probably the case. We go there, we try everything and it's a tricky place to go anyway. Stamford Bridge, you don’t win there with an average performance, so we should be concerned about how good we can be to play the best football game we are able to play.

So, we can now talk about our last game, which we were obviously not happy with, so we have to show a reaction. Yes, it would be nice if we would play definitely better than we did there. With all respect to Leicester, they put an incredible shift in, they deserved the three points but even this game without us performing on our top, top level, we probably should have won the game if we would have used our chances. If we played normal, it's a completely different picture then. But we didn’t, so all respect and well deserved Leicester, and now of course we have to show that we can do much better and that's what we try now. And then we will see. It's nothing to do with City obviously because we cannot catch them without playing football. So we play football, try to get as many points as possible and then we will see.

On what reaction he has seen from his players in training since the Leicester City defeat...

Today is the first session we don’t recover, that’s the situation. The reaction we will see today. You think it sounds a bit crazy if I would now tell the boys it’s not possible what they did there and all these kind of things? Obviously my message came not clear enough across – what they have to do. Or in the game something happened, it was the penalty we missed, then we got a bit in a rush, we never had real rhythm but a little bit of rhythm we lost then as well. But we still played good stuff in moments when we created our chances, that was absolutely good, but then the following action was not convinced enough – maybe that's the thing. What I expect is a football reaction but I would have expected a reaction if we would have won the game because then we can make the next step and all these kind of things. Yes, I'm pretty positive about the mentality of my boys because I know them now long enough. But even when we play a top, top, top game, it's not guaranteed that we will win at Chelsea, but I think it would give us a better chance and that's why we should try to do that.

On Chelsea's current form...

Look, Chelsea had a lot of problems – what I get from information from distance, injuries, then COVID. I know you all have your own experiences with it but when you work in a high-performance surrounding and we have to push the boys to different limits, where we really try to make them fit for the right moments, stuff like this and then you have constantly these kind of worries... It’s not now – I'm not sure how you call that – honey-licking or whatever. It's really tricky and they had the problems. We have the problems.

If we would have won against Leicester, I think it would have been a really, really good December. So we didn't and all of a sudden because of the consistency of City it’s just a difficult moment from outside. For us, not that much because there's always a possibility of losing a football game, it can happen. But that's now over and now we just have to make sure we are really on it again. I expect a really strong Chelsea side because, with all the struggles they have obviously injury-wise and COVID-wise which I don't know exactly about, they still have obviously a proper football team. Leicester gave us a good example: when it's really intense, you have some problems, all these kind of things, if you put a proper shift in, there's always a chance in football and that’s what we will try as well.

On Liverpool's current situation in the league 'not being as bad as what the reaction has been'...

I don’t know about the reaction, to be honest. But I know how we felt and I can tell you the day after the game I still felt the defeat. That's not bad, it's not something you want to have but it just shows us we don’t want to get used to it, we are not used to it and all these kinds of things. That's how it is. As a human being, as a person in this situation, you want to show a reaction, together with your teammates and that's exactly what we will try. The general situation, when you have this kind of close fight – especially with an incredibly consistent team as City, it looks like they are not even a little bit fazed by COVID or, I don't know, about injuries, stuff like this – they are in a good moment and it's just how it is. But you cannot win the league properly in the winter, it’s unlikely. But what they have now is kind of a gap – that's absolutely deserved for them – but now let's just give it a go and let's play on. How I said, at the end of the season one team can become champion, somebody has to be second and third and all these kind of things. There's a decisive moment in April, there you have to be close enough to give it a proper go. We will see where we are then. From now to then, so many games to play, so many different competitions to play. We now have to make sure we always have enough players ready to fight and to compete.

On having Curtis Jones as an option again...

Being out for a while, nothing keeps you fresher than the games in the right moment because you have a game, you have proper intensity and then you have recovery and all these kinds of things. So when you are out, then you are out for some reason and it's better you are in. But yes, it's cool to have him back, especially with the Thiago situation, Naby situation from the 3rd [of January] on and all these kind of things. Very important for us, really happy and he looks good.

On Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita heading to the Africa Cup of Nations...

Especially in our situation now, we know for a bit longer that the situation will be difficult because it's not only that we lose three players, the players we have now not available for [Chelsea] from a COVID point of view – I'm not 100 per cent sure, we will see about that exactly – but some of them at least will not be available for the first Arsenal game, for sure. So we have to see. That's how you do – you have to sort problems in football with football solutions. The football solutions will happen with the players we have available, and that's what we will try and that's what we will do. Planned in the long term, I know exactly how we could play if all the rest are fit and healthy and available, that's no problem and that would be a strong team and all these kind of things. But I don’t know who is available from the 3rd on, so let's have a look in the moment when we know about that. Then we will find the solution for it, we will play football games and we will see how we get through them. It all depends, though, who is available, that’s how it is. We will see.