Jurgen Klopp admits he didn’t expect Liverpool to struggle as much as they have this season despite circumstances conspiring against the Premier League champions. But while ignoring the commotion caused by his team’s wayward form over the last seven weeks, the Reds boss has been surprised his team haven’t adapted more successfully.
Jurgen Klopp said “I don’t get the noise around the results, to be honest, I know what the situation is – I’m talking about the results in general. Even when I know the reason that we are not flying, I expect us to win more football games than we did. That’s what I am concerned about. We said from the beginning it will be the most intense season of all time. For different reasons it is for us – a lot of injuries in the wrong moment, some players have to play too much and have got injured as well. But it’s a really special season, a full season without crowds. I’m pretty sure everybody knew it and the number of injuries is really high. To be really successful you have to be lucky as well. If you are unlucky you have a problem and if you have a problem you have to solve it. But it will not be the perfect season anymore. We talk about the players having absolutely no confidence but there are different levels of confidence. It’s only five or six days ago that we were very confident and very calm and lost the game, I know, but the football we played around the goals we conceded was really, really good. You can only play that kind of football if you are confident. The boys know who they are and how good they are, it’s all clear. But to feel it 100% you have to perform on the pitch.”
Jurgen Klopp said “First and foremost, it doesn’t feel like this in the moment, I can tell you,” said Klopp. “It’s not really important. That’s something that when I’m not here anymore I will think about the time I had here, not in the moment. I know that my job is the present and the future and not the past. Game number 300 is very important to me and game 1-299, not a little bit at this moment. We know we are not completely clueless when we talk about football. But we know that we have to be successful in the future. For us, we have 15 games to go still. So a lot of points. We will go for it and it’s not about where the others will end up it’s just about us and we will try our absolute best to make the best season from now on. That’s our job.”
The Reds have been hampered by a succession of serious injuries on top of the condensed schedule and lack of supporters with which every club has also had to contend. Liverpool slipped out of the League Cup and FA Cup in the early rounds and saw their title defence effectively ended last weekend with a 4-1 loss to leaders Manchester City, the first time in more than 57 years they have suffered a third successive home league defeat. Klopp’s side remain in the Champions League but face a scrap to earn qualification for next season’s competition, with Saturday’s trip to third-placed Leicester City a key clash in the race for a top-four berth.
