Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool’s ability to cope with injuries this season means they are deserving of a place in next season’s Champions League. But the Reds boss is refusing to celebrate anything just yet ahead of a huge climax to a largely frustrating Premier League campaign. Klopp detailed the reasons behind an upturn in form over the last couple months and believes his side will be deserving of a place in next season’s Champions League if they can finish this week strongly.
Jurgen Klopp said: “We found some kind of stability, definitely, formation-wise and playing-wise as well, from constantly being in a chasing mood, we could calm ourselves down and get ready to prepare the things a bit more. We were not too excited in moments. The season was a proper teacher on how to deal with setbacks and we learned, so missing chances in the last few games was not the same impact that it had before. That is the main difference. Shape and form of players came in the right moment. Results always help. Seeing the finishing line, knowing we are always around. We had to fight for everything, for each European spot, nothing is guaranteed now we could still be completely without European football. That’s how close it is. We have target at least all the time. The situation changed in our direction with the number of results. The two games we drew we drew in the last second. Aston Villa we won in the last second, West Brom we won in the last second. It is a quite intense period of the season for us. It feels good in the moment. We had phases during the season when it is just hard that you can’t get over the one game properly and then the next game is waiting. We played Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday. That’s massive after all the things. we need to be lucky with injuries. We don’t have a lot of options in some positions. Maybe we deserve it with the injuries we all the things we went through this year. That is why we were not super, super optimistic thinking ‘Yeah we will do it’ because we really had some lessons this year. One of the lessons I learned very early in my life is don’t celebrate the day before the night. Nothing happened yet.”
Klopp praised his players for their willingness to turn around what was appearing to be a desperate season a couple of months ago. A 1-0 defeat to Fulham in March – their sixth successive reverse at Anfield – left them in eighth place, four points off Chelsea, who held the final Champions League spot, having played a game more. Klopp likened the final two fixtures of the season to a cup run at the semi-final stage as Liverpool look to leapfrog Chelsea and Leicester at the 11th hour.
Jurgen Klopp said “We only qualified for the semis,” he added. “That’s good, now we have to make sure we are ready for it. I try to avoid the absolutely obvious things to say in meetings because I know the boys are smart enough to know that anyway. We have created now a situation, I’m sure you agree that four five six weeks ago no one would have imagined we could get that close. That is positive but being close is not being there. Since I am at Liverpool pretty much every season goes to the wire, for different reasons. I can’t remember a season we haven’t had finals. To the end of the season it was either a big cup competition or we have to fight in the league to the very, very last second. So, here we are again. Now we have to make sure we have something to fight for on Sunday. We can only do that. It is a semi-final and if we win it we have a final if not then probably not.”
