Q&A | Klopp on Man Utd, Salah-Ronaldo comparisons, intensity and more
Jürgen Klopp held a press conference on Friday to preview Liverpool's trip to Manchester United – read what the boss had to say.
The Reds travel to Old Trafford in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon hoping to maintain their unbeaten start to the 2021-22 campaign.
Klopp was asked about the high-profile fixture, the form of Mohamed Salah, half-time speeches and more.
Read on for a summary of his pre-match media briefing…
On whether he places great importance on what he says at half-time...
Yeah. I have not the biggest influence on my team obviously during the game because it's very loud. At the Wanda Metropolitano it was very loud. Pep Lijnders was constantly talking to me and I understood pretty much like 10 per cent and we were next to each other. So, you are not that influential during a game, it's more visual, 'Oh the boss doesn’t look happy' or whatever. So, yes, I think it's very important that we say the right stuff in the right moment before the game, in half-time and, if you can reach out to them, then during the game as well. But that's my job obviously, to analyse the things in the right way and to tell the boys how we can keep going or what we have to improve or how we can use the information we got in the first half. That's the job.
On Manchester United's ability to come from behind...
I didn't think yet about what I will tell the boys actually, but we all know how the world of football is. They won now that game [against Atalanta in midweek] but United-Liverpool is a massive game obviously, we know that. I think Man United is not overly happy with the results they got so far but we all know they are able to do incredible stuff, that's how it is, and we saw it already. So, we try to focus mainly on ourselves but, of course, if you ask me about the half-time talk now, the game is over after the final whistle, not after the whistle after 45, 46 minutes. We know that but I might mention that. But it depends on the result obviously.
On whether the intensity of playing in the Champions League in midweek will be in the mind of both managers...
We played Tuesday and we play now Sunday, we don't have to think about that. I don't think United, Wednesday-Sunday, has to think about that. Wednesday-Saturday could have been our problem. At Atletico we had a lot of problems obviously, and one is the opponent but it was a massive problem and we saw that. They [Atletico] had the weekend off before. Yes, they played with 10 men but, of course, they had completely different energy than we could have in that game. So, we fought through that, that's how it is. But we came through it, that's good, and now we recovered for the last two days and now today we start preparing the game properly. That's how exactly how it should be. No, no consideration because of the intensity of the last game, for us at least.
On comparing Salah and Cristiano Ronaldo...
I never thought about that – why should we compare Cristiano Ronaldo and Mo Salah? Obviously both are world-class players, so that's how it is. I would say even when Ronaldo's left foot is not that bad, but I would say Mo's left foot is probably better. Maybe then Cristiano in the air is slightly better and the right foot is probably better. But speed-wise they are both pretty quick, very desperate to score goals – so maybe that's it. But I really never thought properly about that and I'm not too interested in it, sorry.
On Liverpool's form in front of goal this season, with 36 scored in 12 matches…
It helps, obviously, but it's not now that we are in a situation where we just rely on our goalscoring skills and think we score anyway so we can concede two because we always score three. It's nothing to do [with that], it's more a coincidence that we scored that often; we created chances and scored, but in a row it's quite strange that we did that and I know that. I love winning football games 1-0 as well, so that's completely fine – and for that we need to keep a clean sheet, which would be a good idea for the United game anyway. Yes, scoring goals is good for confidence, but relying on that is already the first step in completely the wrong direction. I think this gets mentioned quite frequently now in the last few weeks that we scored a lot of goals, [but] we never felt it, we never thought about it and that's how we thought we [would] continue dealing with it. Nobody knows how often you will score in the next game but hopefully you do and hopefully you don't concede because that gives you a good chance to win.