Jürgen Klopp on Leeds trip, preparations, Alexander-Arnold's role v Arsenal and more

Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on Leeds trip, preparations, Alexander-Arnold's role v Arsenal and more

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Jürgen Klopp expects to come up against a Leeds United team full of 'fight' and looking to produce a response when Liverpool visit on Monday night.

The Reds boss held a press conference at the AXA Training Centre on Friday morning to preview the Premier League encounter at Elland Road.

Read on for a summary of what he had to say…

On what to expect from Leeds...

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A big fight, a massive fight. In the situation Leeds is in, the last game [a 5-1 defeat by Crystal Palace], of course, as well – these kind of games can happen. They try everything. I actually think they are in a pretty good moment but in that game they got a proper knock, that's clear, because magic Roy [Hodgson] is back and Palace anyway is a really good team and you could see that again in these situations – how they played their counter-attacks, how they played football in general. So it was a tough one where maybe people thought, 'Leeds should win against Palace.' But when you see Palace playing, you ask yourself, 'Why are they in that area of the table?' So we expect them to be absolutely on their toes, massive fight, proper atmosphere. It will be a tough one but we have to build now again on two games that were good, in moments really good and for different reasons – and especially the second half against Arsenal was obviously really good and we have to build on that. That's what we'll try.

On whether Liverpool have 'nothing to lose' between now and the end of the season...

Yeah, we have nothing to lose really. We are in a position where we don't want to be in the table, that means we have to act a little bit like this. We have to try new things, we have to fight for things, that's how it is. The things we tried so far this season didn't work out properly and especially not consistently, and that's what we have to do. Especially from the moment when we scored our goal [against Arsenal], we were really in the game and then it was a top performance even, so that's good.

How I said, we had a long training week and now we have to make sure that we do the right stuff and bring it on the pitch, so that's how it is. All the things are on the table, everything is clear. Our home record is not as bad as the away record but we play away. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the game and it's a tough one. Leeds will go with all they have, we have to go with all we have and these kind of things. Leeds will never be an easy game whenever you go there.

On Trent Alexander-Arnold's role when in possession against Arsenal and whether it's something we can expect to see more of in the future...

Yeah, we have to see. It's just a possibility for us. How I said, we did that before in a lot of moments. In this game, I'm not sure how to say it, but it happened pretty much more often because we wanted it to happen more often. It was different to other times but it's good, it suited him. But we have to see how that fits to other games. So it's absolutely possible that sometimes we will do it and sometimes not. Yeah, that's the situation, that's all. But for him, it was good. Trent, in the second half, with the ball was super-dominant and that was obviously really helpful.

On Liverpool's reaction since the 7-0 win over Manchester United...

The game after United was Bournemouth, wasn't it? Yeah, we didn't play it the same level exactly but it's different and difficult to replicate performances. In the end, everything was tough to take from there but we could have turned the game around in specific moments and didn't. And after that, I don't know, Madrid? I know, the results were not great but the performances were not great. After 7-0, I'm not sure you can really learn how to deal with it, to be honest. It's not that we were flying through the week. It's more these little expectations inside yourself that you think, 'OK, things are clicking, now I'm scoring' and stuff like this. Then you realise, 'Oh, it's different, things are not going that well today.'

So winning 2-0 five times in a row is much better than having these [big results] because it's a super-strange season. I think we all agree it's not our best season, with the two highest results in our history, so absolutely strange. It always shows, 'OK, they can do that. Why can't they do it every week?' And that's a good question and we have to work on the answer, absolutely. But that's it. The reaction could've been better probably but it was not intentional – neither from the boys, nor from me. We didn't think we are the greatest just because we beat United with that crazy result. Things happened because we are not consistent this season, were not consistent this season and that's the problem.

On whether he has been able to do 'anything different' during a full week of training...

Of course it's different. You can go through pretty much everything what is important in football. You can work on defensive stuff, you can work on offensive stuff. You can do finishing, you can even do endurance if you want. You can do everything. In such a long week, you have really time to train. In a short week, you recover most of the time and give the informations all in meetings – that's a massive difference. That's a week where you turn into a coach again and not being just a manager to pick the team and set the tactics up and stuff like this. This is proper coaching. I enjoy it a lot.

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Watch: Klopp's pre-Leeds press conference in full

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