Jürgen on juggling competitions, Origi's progress and more
Jürgen Klopp previewed Saturday's Barclays Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur with a press conference for reporters at Melwood on Friday afternoon - read on to see what else the manager had to say...
On remembering his first game in charge of LFC and looking ahead to his 39th...
It's an impressive difference. I know much more about the place, much more about the club and much more about everything. Of course it was a very, very intensive time since then. It was a good memory, to be honest. The Tottenham game was really exciting for us because [it was my] first game in the Premier League and against Tottenham was very special. [It] was a good game. Nobody felt really satisfied with the result. But at the end, now everyone knows how strong Tottenham is. It's absolutely OK. Nearly everything changed and it doesn't feel new anymore so that's really good. We are looking forward to a really, really important game for both sides. Maybe for Tottenham it is something like a final, only if they lose, so they have to win it to make pressure on Leicester. That's how it is. Usually it is not important to think about the situation of the other team but, in this special case, I think it makes sense to think about and know about it. That means it's a final and we have to be ready.
On dealing with a fight for the top four and the Europa League...
Two tournaments is not a problem, I think it's not a problem. A lot of my players had three games this week, with Saturday, Tuesday and Saturday again [on international duty]. It's always difficult with the national break, you don't know how [the players] come back [and] you don't know what they exactly did. Of course, we see all the things that the national teams send us, but it's different when you're not part of it or you only hear about it. We have to use this time yesterday and today to be well prepared for this game. Then we have another four days until the next game, so it is nothing to think about. Both games are very important but the only game that we can have a little bit of influence on now is the Tottenham game. We can prepare after this. It's absolutely OK and we never had a problem with the balance between the tournaments.
On the international break coming straight after the Southampton loss...
For this, the national break helps. The lads had different things to do, forget the club football for a moment and be fully concentrated on the national teams. That's not a problem. One of the few things I've learned in life is the things that you cannot change, you should not think too much about. We know about national breaks and, yes, we lost at Southampton and we were frustrated. We had the time and possibility to speak immediately after the game about the Southampton game and what we did. But after three or four days, you have to forget it. It makes no sense. It was a game where we showed in the first half how strong we can be, and in the second half we showed that we had a few players on the pitch who had a little bit of a problem with the rhythm - that's how it was. Everybody who saw this game knows that we could have won it - that's the truth. We don't have to talk about this anymore. Now it's Tottenham, and two weeks later, a few things are better, a few things are worse since then and a few things didn't change. But it's a game of football at Anfield so, if we are good, that's really enjoyable and we should try.
On the progress of Divock Origi...
He's in a really good way, [but it has been] interrupted through a few injury problems. When we came to Liverpool we knew about his qualities but we also saw that he is not full of confidence in this moment, for different reasons. He's still 20 so that's quite young and there's a long way to go and a big space to improve - and that's what we try to do. He made big steps, everybody could see. Especially with players who are young or who are not involved for a long time because of injury or other reasons, when we started here, he tried to do too much in each situation. There were not enough clear moments, that's much better [now]. He uses his new physical strength better, he uses his technical skills better and for us, which is very important, his speed. It's quite exciting to think what we can do together. But first of all, it's important that he is available. The only thing [now] is hard work for him and being in the right moment and patient enough to wait for the next step for us. That's how it is. He's in a really good way and we're really happy that he's here.