Jürgen Klopp on Liverpool's form, improvement and expectations

The boss joined ex-Red Jamie Carragher on the show to chat through numerous topics in detail over the course of an hour, such as his side’s start to 2016-17, their style of play and his development as a manager.

We’ve transcribed the best bits of Klopp’s appearance on Monday Night Football for you to read below…

On Liverpool’s current league position…

Maybe it’s the best [position] since I’ve been here in the last 11 months? It’s nice to see, but the problem is that one number – it’s six games, so it’s an early stage. I am happy about it, but I know there’s a long way to go.

On the competitiveness of the Premier League…

It’s very, very competitive like always, but this year the biggest difference is that maybe nobody was really happy last year, apart from Leicester, with their positions, so they’ll all strike back. There was a big change at a lot of clubs in the summer with players and managers, so there is a lot of quality in the Premier League – it is for sure the most competitive league in world football. Everybody asks which is the best league, I have no idea but there are seven, eight or nine teams that think they should be top of the league here and that’s quite interesting. We all have to cope with it, we all have to deal with it and it’s good for everybody who watches it. We have to deal with the pressure.

On Liverpool averaging more ball possession than any other side in the league since Klopp arrived…

I mention it a lot – I say we are a ball possession team, we have the ball most of the time so why [do] I always get asked about ‘can you play with this intensity against the ball?’ and all that stuff? I know we have the ball a lot and in most of the games we have it much more, even against [Manchester] City and all the teams who have the ball very often too. That’s good, we are in a good way, but we can still do better.

On Liverpool’s current status with bookmakers as second favourites for the title…

It’s not too important for me. It’s better that we have something like an optimistic mood around. I think in this moment, Liverpool feels good. They’ve saw us playing, we had this very, very important game against Hull where everybody said ‘maybe this is the last real issue they have – they cannot play against teams that defend deeper’ or something, but we did it [won] in a really impressive way. But, for me, it’s over – it’s two days over. The next game is Swansea then we have the international break – I don’t like the international breaks because the players are not here, I don’t have them around and I have to wait until they play in different teams and styles, but then we have to carry on and we start [again] against Manchester United. Nothing has happened; we have done our job until now. We improved, of course, but that was important. I am fine with the moment, but not finally happy or something. It’s all good, but could be better.

On breaking into management…

When you are a second division player in Germany, you don’t earn enough money. I am not the smartest guy in the world but not too silly, so I could have had a decent career in something else, I don’t know what. But I love the game too much and I always want to be part of it. I always knew if somebody gave me the opportunity to coach a team, it would be better than me playing in the team! It finally happened at [the age of] 33.

On the coach who influenced him most in his early stages of management…

Wolfgang Frank was his name and unfortunately he died too early. He brought in the 4-4-2 [at Mainz] and we became a much better team in this moment. We were a real average team, nobody was interested in the club but in this moment we learned that it’s not important if single players were better than we were, we could still beat them. For us, it opened our eyes. When I became a manager a few years later, I used a lot of the stuff I learned from him. He was the perfect role model and a lot of his players from that team are now coaches or managers around the world and that was always his dream.

On the importance of the counter-pressing tactic…

If you win the ball back high up the pitch and you are close to the goal, it is only one pass away a really good opportunity most of the time. So that’s why I said no playmaker in the world can be as good as a good counter-pressing situation to show the players why it is so important. I said it before the Hull game again, so I used it [that statement] again and we did really well in this game.

On Roberto Firmino’s ability to regain possession high up the pitch…

Roberto is a player who is always involved in offensive and defensive actions. He really likes doing things like this [winning the ball back] because it is a natural skill that he knows. It’s a nice opportunity to win the ball and be close to the centre-backs, that’s why he is doing it – he doesn’t think too much, he is an instinctive player and is really, really strong in those situations. That’s why he can play nearly all offensive positions.

On why there’s still a long way to go for Liverpool…

I don’t like standing here with all these numbers and saying ‘brilliant, brilliant’. It is as good as it should be. We are a good football side, but we have to improve – not only in [defending] set pieces, but in a lot of things. We have done well, but Swansea is the next challenge and it’s a big challenge. Everybody feels good and that’s good, it’s better that we are all optimistic, but nothing has happened really. Football is a nice and simple game on good days, but on other days you can’t find a solution and that’s what makes it interesting.