Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on Pep Guardiola: 'Maybe we can meet up and chat after we retire'
Jürgen Klopp discussed duelling with Pep Guardiola, Liverpool’s recovery in the Premier League title race and the evolution of Trent Alexander-Arnold during the third section of his pre-match press conference.
The boss faced the media at the AXA Training Centre on Friday ahead of the Reds’ top-of-the-table clash with Manchester City on Sunday afternoon.
Read a transcript of part three of Klopp’s press conference below…
On whether he has fun taking on Guardiola and if he will miss doing so when he retires…
I will not miss it, no, I know that. But funnily enough I spoke about this before, that after we both finish careers we might meet somewhere and sit there for hours and hours and hours and just speak about the different things what we thought before this game and that game and this game. It would be interesting, no doubt about that. But I really think we should, as a club, enjoy the ride because it is so special. I know we are in a situation where we just do it like: Benfica away, [done], but no, no, no: it is Benfica away, it is massive. We won all Champions League away games in this campaign so far if I am right, which is absolutely, ‘Wow, OK that happened.’
So it is not easy always to really feel the joy, I can understand, but we should remind ourselves from time to time. I don’t have to remind myself, I could not be happier. Today even the weather is great [and] I woke up this morning, laptop, have a look at City playing against us in the home game. Very interesting game and in these moments I really appreciate my job because it is exactly what I want to do. Then, obviously, you realise it is a job to do, they are a handful. And we are as well and that is what is constantly in my mind, I cannot stop thinking it. All what I say about City, I mean: they are great, Pep is the best coach in the world, no problem at all with that. But I immediately say, ‘Yeah, I always wanted to be the coach of the team that can beat the best team in the world’ and actually I achieved that as well somehow. Now we have to make sure Sunday is the day and there is a little bit of work to do. But yeah, we have time, nothing else to do, so let’s give it a try.
Reverse fixture: Liverpool 2-2 Man City
On what reducing City’s lead at the top of the table from 14 points to one says about the mentality of his players…
The 100 per cent truth is I think what we did is normal. If we wouldn’t have tried it, I would have been disappointed. So if you go in a season and the only thing to have is you want to win the league, we are not that club, we cannot be that club, because City and all the other teams are in the league. ‘If we don’t win the league it is disappointing’ or whatever; it is not allowed. So there are things to go for: qualification for the Champions League, all cup competitions, Champions League. All these things, so there is a lot to go for. But for all these kind of things you need momentum, you need rhythm and whatever situation you are in in early January, it is your situation so work from there and don’t suffer because of it. If the gap is too big then the gap is too big, then close it. To one point, that was not about us, we just won the games. That City didn’t win all their games, that made the gap smaller otherwise it would still be eight points, but they dropped here and there. That’s the situation. That is what I expected from us; that we really go for it from there and winning the games.
I don’t expect us to win all the games but to try it constantly in the way we did it, and it only works if you go game by game by game. There is no other chance because if you now look at our programme, there is no chance to win all the games. If you think about it, we have to win City, United, Everton, Tottenham… and you think, ‘OK, that is not possible.’ But if we play them on one day, it is possible and that’s what we did, that’s what we learned, that’s what we educated ourselves to. I am happy about that, we as a group can do that with all the difficulties in front of us. Yeah, we knew it was 14 points but we didn’t care and we just wanted to win as many points as possible until the end of the season and that situation did not change.
On whether Alexander-Arnold has redefined the full-back role and when he decided he would be a right-back…
I don’t know when I decided that, but he developed in a way that nobody could expect exactly. But what he had, he had the biggest mentor possible in Pep Lijnders. Obviously Pep coached him in the U16s so in my early stages here, I’m not sure when, Pep started telling me about the boy. And then obviously this skinny kid came around the corner and you could see he was special but there was a lot of work to do, especially physically. Look at the first pictures of Trent when he played at Hoffenheim and now the man he became, wow – what a difference! No, the position we developed together with him, Robbo, Kostas, even when Millie and Joe is playing there, we are so much more flexible. It’s not that you tell a full-back from the first day, ‘So, in these situations you are really high, in these situations you are really deep.’ You develop that as a team, that is what I was talking about: the difference at Dortmund and the situation with Bayern to Liverpool is that we can do this because the boys are still here. Even when we have very short pre-seasons we don’t start at nil again, we have a basis where we can work from and that helps a lot.
I think in the past a lot of people thought other full-backs, that they would redefine the position. Maybe they did and for sure he did as well so far but where it can end, where it will go to, I don’t know. We have some ideas how we can evolve our game but the time we have for training is really tricky and with the amount of games we play it is really tricky, but maybe we can find some moments when we can work on this. But whatever you set up as a coach, 80 per cent or 90 per cent is up to the player and what he makes of it because where we bring Trent, in which position we bring Trent in the game, give him the freedom to do this or that – if the output is not the output then you just open up your formation, get exposed, these kind of things. So, yeah, he did well so far.