Jurgen Klopp has urged Liverpool not to “take their foot off the gas” next season as he anticipates even greater competition at the top of the Premier League table. The Reds are preparing for a dramatic final day of the top-flight campaign as they aim to complete the third leg of an unprecedented trophy quadruple. Asked if any team can challenge Liverpool and City,
Jurgen Klopp said: “Yes. When we play Chelsea, I see that. In the FA Cup final, I was over the moon with our first half-hour because that was the best half-hour we’d ever played against Chelsea because it’s incredibly difficult. We will learn, and we will see how the squads will look next season, all these kind of things. But you know Ten Hag is arriving at United and they don’t wait now five years or whatever, they will go big and these kind of things. You have Tottenham and Antonio Conte is very, very ambitious and they have already a good team. To play in two competitions (Premier League and Champions League) they will need a few more players and they will bring them in. Nobody has to worry that the gap will stay forever or whatever. It was the hardest work to get here. So if we take the foot a little bit off the gas then immediately it’s not whatever the gap is at the moment, it’s immediately three points and that’s nothing. It’s all about us to make sure we can be as good as possible. The rest we don’t have a real influence on. We have a talented group and we will have a talented group next year, but we have to make a proper machine of it again. And then we go, and then we will see.”
Klopp is expected to rotate once again for the visit of Wolves, and will decide on how much part Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk play after the pair returned to training having missed the midweek win at Southampton. Thiago Alcantara, Naby Keita, Luis Diaz, Sadio Mane, Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold are among those pressing for a recall. However, Fabinho is likely to be kept back for the Champions League final against Real Madrid in Paris next Saturday.
