Jurgen Klopp Liverpool
Jurgen Klopp has explained how Liverpool are “ignoring” any thoughts of tiredness as they continue their hectic pursuit of an unprecedented quadruple. No player in Europe’s leading leagues has played more matches this season for club and country than Luis Diaz, who has made 64 appearances. Liverpool team-mates Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane are in the top five with 60 outings each. But Klopp, whose side can go top of the Premier League with victory over Tottenham Hotspur as Anfield tomorrow evening, has no qualms with the intense workload being placed on his squad.
Jurgen Klopp said: “We accept it. It’s intense, we know it. Winning football games is the best energiser you can have. Having big targets is a fantastic energiser, having seen the sunlight helps massively the mood. In the moment when you think you are tired you are definitely tired. As long as you ignore it you can go much longer, so the inner voices calm them down or shut them up if possible and you can go for long. We do everything so the boys can recover in the best possible way and then it’s a fight on the highest level. If you want to go for everything you have to fight for everything and that means you want it. You don’t fight a fight on this level because you have to fight, you fight on this level because you want to fight. And that’s what we do. I have really no idea where it will lead us but so far it is absolutely outstanding. The atmosphere in the team is good. Players who were not involved are never in a bad mood, everyone enjoys being around and everybody is desperate to play the next game. We have to make sure they are first of all physically ready and then the targets we have make us mentally ready. I don’t think we had this problem in the first half against Villarreal (with tiredness). They had a super start and we didn’t react well, that can happen. As in other sports, a marathon or climbing a mountain, there are long things to do and you have to be always focused.”
Victory against Tottenham will see Liverpool move two points clear at the Premier League summit ahead of Manchester City, who entertain Newcastle United on Sunday. Roberto Firmino is likely to again miss out with the Brazilian forward expected to instead train having missed the last five games with a foot problem. Klopp will again rotate his resources after Tuesday’s 3-2 win at Villarreal, with skipper Jordan Henderson, Joel Matip and Luis Diaz among those pressing for a start.
Jurgen Klopp said: “The main challenge is the quality of the opponent. I mean, you think about how Tottenham wins the games, of course they have a brilliant football team, but the way they set it up with the five and then offensively and defensively with the four and one, or with the two and three. Up front, (they have) speed like crazy – Harry Kane, what a player, and obviously fits in that idea extremely well. There’s a blind understanding between them, so I’d say it’s probably the biggest challenge for protection we face for a long time.”
