Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on his future, hunting the title, West Ham and more
Jürgen Klopp addressed topics including his own long-term future, Liverpool’s role as hunters in the Premier League title race and the challenge West Ham United will pose this weekend during his pre-match press conference.
The boss sat down with the media at the AXA Training Centre on Friday afternoon, ahead of the Reds’ clash with the Hammers.
Read a transcript of the discussion below…
On how much he is enjoying chasing Manchester City at the top of the Premier League…
I have to be careful what I say, some of you will make something really weird of it. I enjoy the situation we are in, that’s true. What I don’t enjoy but know as well [are the] questions about it, because it’s considered we won the games already, there are always a lot of games in between. I really want to win tomorrow, really. But if we lose, you all sit here and tell me the title race is over and these kinds of things. I don’t have enough capacity for all these different scenarios, I don’t really think about it. The only thing I think about is West Ham then Inter and Brighton and whatever. They’re all so difficult to play, I cannot think about what we can win at the end. I am barely smart enough to get enough concentration and maybe focus for one game, not the general situation. We are, obviously, not in the worst moment, but there are so many challenges ahead of us that I don’t feel in a chasing mood, or whatever, I just feel that we are hopefully ready tomorrow to face West Ham in a better way than we did when we played them there [at the London Stadium].
On facing David Moyes and the West Ham manager’s record of never winning at Anfield…
Long may it continue! He was close, I think, a couple of times since I’ve been here, [he’s] very good. What West Ham are doing is incredibly good, I have to say. I am pleased for them; he is a really nice colleague. After all the things that happened [to him] in the past after his very successful spell at Everton, being at West Ham again and being himself in a really good way, making smart transfers, bringing really good players in and having a really strong side. Against us traditionally they are more defence orientated with counter-attacking, but if you let them play football now, I’m not sure who will be on the pitch or who is fit, but [Declan] Rice and [Tomas] Soucek is a really top double-six and then whatever is coming up front is really strong. [Jarrod] Bowen, what a player he became, unbelievable. I saw him at Hull [City] and he was really good that time, but I’m not sure a lot of people expected this jump. Unbelievable player. [Said] Benrahma outstanding. [Pablo] Fornals outstanding. [Michail] Antonio outstanding. For sure I forgot somebody who is in the offensive line. [They’re] all tempo, technique and the combination of that is really good, but we are not bad as well and that’s what we have to let them feel because in the game against West Ham [at the London Stadium] I don’t think we were ourselves, at least not to 100 per cent, which is what you should be. You should make it much more difficult for the others to score than we did that day. It’s long ago I know, a lot of good things happened since then but nonetheless we must be better than the first game.
Inside Anfield: Reds beat Norwich in FA Cup
On whether it is a difficult task to pick a team from his squad of players…
No. To pick a team is not a problem. I am long enough in the job to know how I want the team to play in the next game and who is then most suitable for that. That’s not a problem. The real problem was the squad for the [Carabao Cup] final because five subs, great, absolutely great, and we have to keep talking about that because the whole world is doing it and it helps football. The game we played Chelsea was [one of] the most intense games I ever saw for 120 minutes, only possible because we had five changes. It’s no other chance to do that and by the way in games before as well, because that’s only why these players had the power to do that because we can change in the cup competitions five times. We have to discuss that until it happens [in the Premier League], it is so necessary. But, again, you play a game like this and you are not allowed to have more players in the squad, you don’t get a medal and you order the medals later, so there’s some things that could make it nicer, at least for the winner, which I think is the plan of the whole thing so there’s no problems after the tournament. Finding a line-up for a matchday will never be my problem as long as I have enough players, but then explaining to some players that, by the way, you are not involved today, only for today and not for weeks. It’s true, it still hurts, and they don’t deserve it and that’s why I don’t like that but having all the players available means we will have a really good line-up.
On whether there has been a change in hunger in his team since winning the Carabao Cup…
The boys are confident, they were confident before. Yes, what is a big difference is it is a while ago we had a final and feeling the size of a final, especially when it is at Wembley, 50/50, massive crowd, noise, sensational atmosphere. Smelling that [and] experiencing that is really cool and, definitely, we want to have that more often again, that’s true. I said it now a couple of times when the final whistle [went], or the final shot or whatever, it didn’t feel any different to the Champions League final, it was no different and that’s cool. We want to have that more often; it doesn’t mean we will get it more, it just means we want it to have it more.
On the challenge of keeping his players physically and mentally ready to play amid such a busy fixture schedule…
The physical part is tough, absolutely tough, because you cannot decide about it. If I want to be recovered, that doesn’t mean I am recovered. It helps, but it doesn’t help really. That’s the big challenge, we try to do that. So, we played 120 minutes plus a long, long penalty shootout on Sunday so it was clear we had to change [against Norwich City in midweek]. Nobody who played 120 minutes started the game, most of them were not even involved in the squad. So we came through that round, that’s good, but now we play again three days later against a top, top-class team in Europe this season, definitely. That’s, from a physical point of view, really hard. From a psychological or mental point of view… we made a decision, we made a decision: we want to be as successful as somehow possible; we want to use the situation the club gave us with this great group of players and good coaches and all these kind of things. That’s what we want to use and that means we have to show that. Each club might have a different identity - ours since we were together is ‘intensity’, and that’s what we have to show every matchday. That’s what we expect from ourselves and that’s it. So that doesn’t mean you are always on your top, but it means you have to try it at least always with all you have - and that’s what we do.
On the progress of Ibrahima Konate and how it has not been easy for the centre-back to be in and out of the team…
No, but his quality helps obviously. He is really good. He has all the skills you need to be a good centre-half and always like it is with young boys, especially when you are that skilled, then sometimes your concentration level drops a little bit here and there because you are used to sorting the situation even when you are a little bit late in the decision making and all these kind of things. So, he can be so much better but he is really good, that helps most. The other thing is that our centre-halves have a sensational relationship, absolutely sensational relationship, so that helps each of them as well. They learn from each other and help each other because it’s a very special position. They don’t play any other position; Joey a little bit at right-back, but apart from that they are centre-halves. That’s what helps them as well because they are really close and enjoy the time here in this team, even when they are disappointed if they are not in the squad or not starting, but not as much [that would mean] they would not be able to start the next game. That is good.
On his own long-term future and whether the ability of his current squad may influence his decision…
Not really, it’s nothing to do with that. The plan is still the same. I realised when I gave the answer, I thought, ‘Oh God!’ but I couldn’t get it back, I was just not in the situation. The plan is still the same, nothing changed really and if I decide - if I decide - then to leave, or maybe I get the sack in 2023, but if I decide to leave in 2024, it has nothing to do with the quality of the squad. So, ‘Oh God, I have to manage them’, or ‘Better to stop than managing them’ - it is not like this, it has nothing to do with that. All the things we do are for the long term, all the things we do are for the long term. This club must be even better when especially I am not here anymore and that is the plan. That’s what we are working on so it is not so important how long I will stay, it is much more important what we do until then.
On how that ties in with his desire for this group to win more trophies…
It’s a long time, a lot of trophies out there so we will give it a try. The only problem we have is so many other teams want to do it as well; in Europe plenty of teams [and] in England it is like… imagine City would not be, then how many trophies we would have won! But they are here and it’s no problem; we really push each other on really high levels. So, we don’t set ourselves a limit, why should we, but we know it is really difficult. Really difficult. It is always a question of perspective: I don’t think it’s right that we didn’t win enough so far, but you can always think maybe here or there you could have won more. We were a bit unlucky in moments as well. Now we won the Carabao Cup and all of a sudden we are only missing one: ‘Win the FA Cup and then you have the whole collection,’ stuff like this, and it’s really nice but I couldn’t be bothered about it. It’s just: is there a competition? Yes? We try to win it if it’s possible, and if it’s not then we still try to be the best version of ourselves. That’s how it is. You can be a spectacular second, which we were unfortunately after a really good season, and it helped us a lot for the future. Just learn to play as often as somehow possible your absolutely best football. That gives you a proper chance to win something. Unfortunately, no guarantees.