While Jurgen Klopp may have banned dressing room cameras or any insight to his conversation with players, Adam Lallana revealed the message given to Liverpool’s players ahead of the showdown with Everton. Despite playing with young team, reserves and depleted squad in cup competitions, Klopp instructed his players to want the ball and not to shy away from it, even when it was tough for them at times. Adam Lallana admitted that whether its Liverpool academy or the first team squad, winning has become like an addition to everyone in the club and it’s all come down from Jurgen Klopp.
Adam Lallana said “We came into this game, and the message beforehand was ‘expect to win’. I couldn’t care less about the average age of the team or how many young lads were out there – we expected to win. I know how good the young lads are, they train with us day in, day out. It’s just about living and breathing that mentality and the winning culture we have here at the minute. It was no surprise we came out with a win.”
Jurgen Klopp said as much after the game – that if you don’t stick to these ideas, work your socks off, support your team-mates and get your head up and play, you’ll be out the door. So they knew this intensity, this new ‘Liverpool way’, inside out because it’s how they train every day but they still had to put it into practice in the pressure cooker of a FA Cup Merseyside derby and it was just brilliant to see them do it. It bodes really well for the future for Liverpool and not just the distant future.
