Speaking ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League clash with West Ham United this weekend, Jürgen Klopp offered a damning assessment of the title race after his side were defeated by Everton in midweek.
The German’s immediate reaction to that loss was that the Reds would ‘need a crisis’ to occur at both Manchester City and Arsenal if Liverpool were to keep their title hopes alive, and reflecting on the magnitude of their derby defeat on Friday, he expressed that ‘we have to win four [games], and they have to lose two games.’
‘Don’t get me wrong, nobody gave up here,’ insisted Klopp, adding that ‘we just need to be realistic. Both of them [Man City and Arsenal] must lose two games. First of all, we have to win four and they have to lose two games. They didn’t lose two games I don’t know since when, so why should it start now? But if it happens, we have to be there, stuff like this. That’s the situation.’
‘I’m not this kind of guy [who says] ‘we will be 100 per cent and we will get them’ and everybody thinks he’s a bit dumb – I might be but not in that way! So, that’s it, that’s the approach. How I said, I didn’t like our football and I hope I can help the boys to play better and much more positive again.’
Embed from Getty Images‘I’m pretty sure Arsenal and City see it now as a two-horse race. They might have to say something else publicly, but they don’t expect for themselves to lose two games from now on – I don’t expect them to do that. If they do it, we would be completely silly if we would then not be around. I don’t think it will happen, but if it happens then we should be there.’
It’s set to be a difficult end to the season for Liverpool, and Klopp highlighted their match against Aston Villa on May 13 as a particular challenge. ‘They – and Tottenham – have a few points less than us, so we still need points to be definitely qualified for the Champions League, which is obviously a real target,’ said Klopp.
Qualification for Europe’s elite competition is not yet a certainty for Liverpool, and Klopp stressed that ‘nobody here is happy at all. They are probably happy at Aston Villa with the situation they are in – rightly so.’
‘Just to explain how different it is, we cannot go back to the point where we say, ‘yeah, but it’s good enough.’ It is very good, but because we were that close [to the PL title], of course we are very, very disappointed in this moment in time. That’s how it is, we cannot change that.’
