Speaking ahead of Thursday’s Premier League clash with Sheffield United, Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp addressed the media and offered an insight into the club’s mentality as they remain in a fierce battle to secure the league title.
Liverpool find themselves engaged in a three-way title race, with Arsenal and Manchester City both keen to lay their hands on the prestigious trophy come the end of the season. The Gunners held the Citizens to a goalless draw on the weekend, with the result prompting many to label Liverpool as favourites.
Klopp brushed off those suggestions though, reminding reporters that ‘the situation for us is Sheffield United, and not who is the favourite. I am pretty sure when we lost at Arsenal we were not favourites after that matchday. Maybe rightly so or not, I don’t know and I don’t care.’
Embed from Getty ImagesI think I said in the last press conference, one of the most important things to get through this period is just to ignore the outside mess, because that goes up and down and is emotional and all these kind of things. We have to be professional. We have to be emotional but in the right way. We have to be the best version of ourselves, we have to try to play the best football we can play and then let’s see what the outcome is. There are no guarantees, there are just opportunities. The clearer you see the opportunity, the more likely you can take it. That’s it.’
The conclusion of the 2023/24 calendar brings about a congested period for the Reds, and Klopp stressed the importance of having depth within the squad to avoid injuries and burnout. ‘Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday – these are our next six games,’ explained the German.
‘We need the squad, we need everybody who can come back. We need, in an ideal world, full strength, which is probably not possible – because they come back but somebody else will not be available. That’s how it is; the games are too intense, everybody is fighting for everything.’
‘It’s really, really a tough period but exciting as well. Looking forward to it. Tomorrow and all the games coming up. They are all difficult for different reasons, because first and foremost they are football games, that’s always difficult. But we are really looking forward to it, I cannot say it differently.’
