Boss on Pep Guardiola, Sergio Aguero and defending
Jürgen Klopp addressed the world's media at Melwood on Thursday afternoon ahead of Liverpool taking on Manchester City at Anfield on New Year's Eve.
The Reds boss revealed the latest on Joel Matip and Philippe Coutinho's chances of being involved, and also discussed former City man James Milner's recent transition to left-back.
Read on for a summary of the other points Klopp touched on during his press conference.
On how big the game is...
It's very big for both. When you have a look at the table and see that six clubs fight for [fourth] or [first] it's a really interesting position. Then you have the 'midfield' in this moment with Southampton and Everton and then all the rest are fighting to stay in the league. That means each game is already kind of a final, we know this. But we know on the other hand there are a lot of games to come and you need to be ready for them too. [The game is] the only thing we have to do on New Year's Eve so it's the most important game I can imagine - against an outstanding strong side. How I said before, there aren't a lot of advantages before the game, the only real advantage is that it's at Anfield. We should try to use this advantage and we are obviously not in the worst shape, but unfortunately Man City [aren't either]. That means it will be really difficult for both teams, I would say. I'm really looking forward to it because we all love playing against the best and they are for sure in the group of the best teams in the world. I'm happy to have the opportunity.
On City finding themselves behind Chelsea...
They were on a good way and then a few things happened. I don't know how many games they won at the start but [it's] not really likely when you come into a club that everything works like this immediately. [They have] the highest quality in the team and highest quality on the bench, it's a really good mixture. They are successful but this league is really difficult to play for all of us. There are a lot of challenges to win each week. I didn't think too much in the summer about where Man City will end and not too much in the last week, I only thought about what we have to do to win the game.
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On the return of Sergio Aguero from suspension...
I hope Pep gave him the opportunity to have three-and-a-half weeks off - somewhere with good weather, Argentina is good in the moment I think! He is back and a good striker, obviously. We played them already and he was involved and I always thought that he is quite a talented boy. I never made a secret of it, and now he is back in the team with a lot of other really good players, that makes life not easier for us. But we knew it before and even when he is not playing they are an outstanding team. That's not something we think about too much, it's only really one thing of a lot of things. How it always is, he can only score goals if somebody gives him the ball. We have to avoid the easy passes, I would say. Probably we cannot avoid each pass in his area, but the easy ones we should avoid and we are able to defend really well. For this, we need to be concentrated, that's the biggest challenge in this game, to play at the highest concentration level in each second of the game. But again, for both teams it's hopefully the same, so they could have the same problems with us.
On using experience of past encounters with Guardiola...
No, because I don't play against Pep Guardiola, our teams play against each other and they are completely different [to what] Bayern was or Dortmund was when we played each other. I could say everything about how Pep played with Bayern, but that's not important anymore because now he is at Man City with different players, different systems. We are a different team so, at the moment, both sides cannot be sure which idea the other team has. It's not that we have a look back at the last few games against Pep Guardiola because we don't play each other, our teams do it.
On Pep's influence on modern football...
Johan Cruyff started [total football] and Pep made it nearly perfect with his side at Barcelona. He had a big influence at Bayern, their game changed nearly completely, so he's an outstanding manager 100 per cent. But I'm not interested too much in giving things a name. You can see it on the pitch, he is a really influential manager, and he has a clear idea, it's pretty much a good idea, to be honest. He had a fantastic career until now, with a nice start at Barcelona, really, really good at Bayern, and now he's at City and he's there to be successful, not to show good he is. That's how we all are, we want to help our team. The Barcelona style is not possible for each team to play, it depends a lot on the players you have. If you tell a Sunday league team to try to play like Barcelona, that's pretty difficult. There's always a different way you have to choose and you always adapt to your players. That's what he's doing, and that's what we do.
On defence being the deciding factor...
We should both think a little about how we protect our own attacks! Both teams are pretty good in counter-attacks, both teams are pretty good in possession, so we have to defend both at the highest level. At the end, the detail will make the difference. It's nice to think about and to try everything we can in the game. What I like is that we beat them last year. They were top of the table and we were kind of somewhere nowhere, but we could win the game. They are getting better since last year but we are getting better too. It will be a different game to last year, it's not exactly the same, we cannot play like last year, they will not play like last year. That's really exciting. If I would not sit on the bench, I would buy a ticket 100 per cent for the game.