Klopp on Milner's assists, Sturridge's goals and playing to the whistle

On James Milner's 11 assists this year...

To be honest, I don't care who gives the assist but I'm happy with that. Milly is obviously in a good moment, a lot of players are at the moment. That's good for us. I don't remember all of them but I'm pretty sure, when I have looked at our results in general, each assist was very important for us. That's good, really good. But it shows that we find each other more often than a few months ago - that means we know where we have to be when some things happen in a game. That's how football should work. It's not over, there are a lot of things to do and there are a lot of things to play for, so we need assists from all the players a lot more. Hopefully we do it.

On his side's performances recently...

To be honest, I don't think too much about the last game - we play it, I'm happy or I'm not, and then I think about the next game. The only thing I can say is [that] we're absolutely okay. We created chances, we defended well, we strike back, we play football - that's how it is but that's what we need. For me it's not too important what we did, it's more important what we do and what we will do. The last game can be the basis for the next game. The first half against Everton was very intensive on both sides - that's what we can take for Newcastle. But we don't have to think about the second half, nobody should [expect an] easy second half against Newcastle because that will be pretty different. All what we did until now is only the basis for what we have to do from now. We are not happy all the time. We think about [how] we could have won at Southampton or think about if we took all the points against Sunderland at home - it would be five more [points]. Where would we be with these? That's not how it is. We played our games in different situations and now it is a different situation - after a game, before a game, with injuries and things like this. Four wins in a row, what does it mean? Nothing for the next game. [It's] only a number.

On scoring right before half-time in the last two games...

If we could keep this until the end of the season then it would be great! It's not a coincidence. Especially in the Everton game, we had the bigger chances before. Adam [Lallana] and Roberto [Firmino] had bigger chances than our real goals. You cannot play average and hope you score late goals in the first half. That can happen but it's not logical. In both games we played pretty well and that's why you prepare for situations like this - if you stay in the race then you can still score goals. Especially in the Everton game, I saw the greed in their eyes that they actually believe they can score another goal before half-time. You can play the watch down and say 'okay in a minute it's the break and we can have a little break', but I didn't see this in one second and that's pretty smart to do it like this. We scored the second goal that was very important for this game [Everton]. Hopefully it helps us in the future.

On whether to judge Daniel Sturridge on the goals he scores...

It depends, I don't know. Is there a real answer for this question? Of course the first job of a striker is to score goals and that's clear. But he cannot score in each game. If you look at Gerd Müller, the most famous and best German striker we ever had, he scored something around 600 [goals] but there were a few games where he didn't score. To stay in the game then helps the team. Meanwhile, football is a little different in these times so of course you have to work. But it's about smart behaviour in the right position and closing gaps - that's easy and not too difficult. The game is 95 minutes or something, so you need to be in the game for this long to help the team all the time. But of course, Daniel has scored in the last few games and he had wonderful moments. He was a real threat for the other team. At Bournemouth, things were really outstanding and he's able to create his own moments and he does not always need an assist. With our performance, it's good to have these points and we have to think about tomorrow - who will start, who will play and who will come in. All these things. Of course, we need a striker who will score goals but hopefully we can do it from different positions.

On Kolo Toure's future...

Kolo is part of my future plans, it depends on what the future is for you to be honest. I can't give the answer here because I didn't speak to Kolo about the plan. But how I heard, a big part of Kolo's future is at Liverpool. I would say everything is okay. When I came here, Kolo had a few problems injury-wise. Meanwhile, it looks completely different - that's good. [He's] a very important player for us, even when he doesn't play. [He's] one of the most impressive people I ever met. It's not the right moment and especially not the right surrounding to speak about the future of Kolo.