Jürgen Klopp on Tottenham, consistency and Reds' mentality
Jürgen Klopp discussed a range of topics when previewing Liverpool's trip to Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.
The boss answered questions from reporters at the AXA Training Centre on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the Reds' encounter with Jose Mourinho's side in north London.
Klopp was asked about the positives he drew from the FA Cup encounter with Manchester United last weekend and how his players are looking to tackle an important run of fixtures in the league.
Read on for a summary of his pre-match press conference…
On the difference in the teams from his first match in charge of Liverpool against Tottenham in October 2015…
It was a completely different situation. When I arrived in England, Spurs was, for sure, the most talented squad – incredibly talented players and very young. I forget now, 100 per cent, a couple of them, but Lloris was maybe not a kid anymore but in the best age for a goalie, Harry Kane, Eriksen, Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Lamela, Davies, Alderweireld. So they were all really young at that time and already really good. They were upcoming and it was just a matter of time before they would be really successful – and by the way, they were really successful, I think they came second that year if I am 100 per cent right. It was a different situation and when I arrived here, I had a different squad, I had a different age group, we had to change things and so that's different. It says nothing, it is just more about how the situation was at that time. They were in the best age and we weren't. They were in a really good place and we weren't. So, you have to make more changes then if you are not happy with the situation and that's what we tried to do.
On whether the positive aspects of Liverpool's performance at Old Trafford on Sunday can prove a 'turning point'…
I understand the question and it is always like this: everybody is waiting that I now say, 'Yeah, that was the turning point' – and I wanted it to be the turning point, but the turning point of a result would have been nice as well. You play well and then you get a result. There was a lot of good stuff but of course we conceded three goals and that's not what we want. I cannot always [say], 'Now this was the turning point, that was the turning point, this was the turning point…' – it's not about that. The general situation is a challenge and a challenge is good and I'm fine with it. I am not a person who sits here and thinks my life should always be perfect and my team has to win all the football games. If something is going wrong you have to work on it and that's what we are doing. We are in this moment and now the next game is Tottenham. If I was to say now, 'Yes, it was the turning point' and then against Tottenham we don't play like that, then you say, 'Start again'. We cannot constantly start new. We started already a while ago in changing things and trying to improve and all these things. We will stay on that, we will stay on track, we will do it and do it and do it. We will be really annoying and we will fight hard, we will be positive with the positive things and we will be critical with the not-so-positive things. That is what we do.
I know people expect me to be in a bad mood or whatever – I'm not, I take the situation like it is and go out and make sure we are ready for a fight. We will be ready for a fight tomorrow night, but where it will lead us to I don't know. Tottenham, when we met last time in December, it was first and second or something like that. Obviously that's not the same situation anymore, a lot of things happened since then, but that's how football is and in a month's time a lot of things can happen again. We want to make sure that if we talk then about the last month then it is much more positive than this last month, but we cannot change the last month anymore – we have to take it. I know it is easy in the high-flying times to believe in what you do, but I am not only a good-weather coach, I was never [like this]. For all circumstances you need to have the right answers and the right answers for this is respond to some things and keep the things which are really good. There are still a lot of things. United, it's not like out of the blue we played some good stuff again; we played good stuff before, but we have to do it consistently, we have to do it more often, we have to do it for 95 minutes in a game. We know it and we will do it.
On Liverpool's tough run coming up and how they will approach these fixtures...
First and foremost, and you might remember it, we never thought about the game after the next game. So we play Tottenham, nothing else. We only have to play Tottenham and we don't have to play the other four, whatever it is. It's tough enough and that's what we have to make clear. Again, in the best times we had to say and we said it because it was the truth – we went game by game. In this moment, we go game by game. Tottenham, do you think it's impossible for us to get something there? No, probably not, I don't know. Is it difficult? Yes. That's with all the Premier League games the same and we just have to make it happen. That's how it is. It's difficult, I know, but we will try, we will see.
On whether he's seen anything different with the mental approach of his players this season...
Of course, because we are different. It's always like this. Time changed and everything changed. Of course things are different – new players in, things are different. Because the results are not as good, people might say now it's worse, but that's not true. Changes, you cannot judge them only because of the result, the short-term result. So, we make all our decisions for the long term, that the club has the benefit in the long term. And that's what we did this time again. We will give our absolute everything this season. It's not about defending the title or whatever, it's about winning football games – it was always about this. This defending or attacking the title, that's more something you have to say because you ask me. This club and this team has the potential to fight for the title. We will see if we can make that happen, if we can get close again this year. If not, we will try next year. We give our absolute everything this season, especially for the next game. With all the difficulties we had, we try really all we can and that's it. We get judged for that, that's how it is, that's fine as well. I understand 100 per cent if we don't win the game people think you don't try hard enough, but I can tell you we try hard and we will continue trying.