Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on Atalanta analysis, Europa League aims, returning players and more

The first leg of the last-eight tie takes place at Anfield on Thursday night and Klopp has stated that the Reds’ sole focus is on their Serie A opponents, not the prospect of concluding his reign by winning the only trophy he is yet to lift as Liverpool manager.

Ahead of the meeting with Gian Piero Gasperini’s side, Klopp discussed a wide variety of topics during his pre-match press conference.

See our round-up below.

On whether winning the Europa League would be particularly special given that it is the only trophy he is yet to lift as Liverpool manager…

It is a bit of an open bill, if you want. That’s there but it’s not pertinent for me personally. It was for us eight years ago, or whenever it was exactly when we were in Basel, we played a good first half and a not-so-good second half and lost against the serial winners of the competition. So, it was not a great night but [was] somehow the start for a lot of other things so that’s cool as well. But last year it was like that for the majority of the season we didn’t really look like we would be involved in international football at all. From the moment we saw the chance to get into the Europa League, we were really desperate to do so and you only do that when you are Liverpool because you want to win the competition. But for that you have to do all the necessary steps [and] obviously there are now only great teams left in the competition.

It’s really outstanding and we know what Atalanta are all about. Gasperini is doing an incredible job there for years and years and it’s difficult to play against Italian teams. It always was: they are tactically super-disciplined and super-dangerous in a lot of areas, so we have to be at our best to get into the next round over these two legs. We are not thinking about the final or something like that, we really have to be at our best.

On whether it is more difficult than he expected to ‘replace’ youngsters with the returning senior players, given how well the former have done this season…

It is probably different but it’s not more difficult. Different in the way that, when you talk about the likes of Jota, Ali and Trent then you usually think the first day they can step on the training ground you have to bring them again and play them again. We probably had these situations in the last few years and that is never really healthy, it doesn’t help a lot. They need time to get up to speed again and stuff like this.

So, they are most happy that we are still in the situation we are in. I don’t know exactly how long they were out for now, but I think Ali is so far seven or eight weeks, he is not back in full training yet, but seven or eight weeks. I think Jots was 10 weeks or something, it was really long, and Trent was the longest since I have known him I think. So, they all need to get back step by step so if they are now ready to go for minutes and more, it’s perfect timing because we play Thursday, Sunday, Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday so we will need the boys. It’s not about who can then play all the games because the young boys or whoever stepped in and played the role. They shouldn’t, and couldn’t, play all the games so we need really all the players. We need always quality on the pitch because we have to win pretty much all the games. That’s the good news and I cannot say anything negative about it, it’s just that they need time and hopefully we can give them that time.

On preparing for games during a busy schedule...

Last year not, we were out of Europe pretty quickly, but then usually we had that most of the time we went far [in European competitions], so that’s a normal procedure for us. So yeah, there’s not a lot about training, it’s a lot about meetings, video analysis and stuff like that. This one session we have to prepare for the next opponent, it’s not a long time. And Sunday-Thursday, by the way, is quite comfortable. The Thursday-Sunday is then a bit more tricky but we are used to that. This rhythm is the normal rhythm for us.

How we said, as long as the rhythm is normal, it’s all fine. In the moment when you interrupt this kind of rhythm, it becomes immediately super-challenging when you take a few hours out, where you all think it doesn’t matter – it matters a lot, each expert will tell you. But as long as it’s the normal rhythm, it’s fine, we are used to that and we try to make the best of it. But it’s not long training sessions. We don’t train a lot nowadays, we just prepare. We have minus-one sessions, plus-one, minus-two, minus-one, go again. That’s pretty much it.

On the development of Cody Gakpo, Ryan Gravenberch and Virgil van Dijk...

The development of the boys, all good. Three great players, obviously slightly different roles.

Virg is our captain, plays a sensational season, is in a good moment – hopefully it stays like this until the end. Cody, I said it before, is for us a super-important player. [He] came on against Sheffield [United], played incredible against Man United, really good. I caused a little bit a problem in a phase where we didn’t have midfielders, so I put him in midfield. That didn’t work out well – I thought it was alright but he couldn’t gain the confidence each player needs. Since he’s back up front, [he] can play in between the lines, can be himself, it’s all getting in the right direction again.

And Ryan played for us super-important games. He got injured in bad moments where he could get some rhythm. Then he had a little injury here and there again. Incredible talent, crazy first touch and movements, acceleration – all fantastic. But we have a really good midfield together and he will get minutes more and more, 100 per cent, and will go his way, 100 per cent. He’s an incredibly talented player and I really think he’s in the right place, in the right club.

On facing Atalanta again after the Champions League meetings in 2020...

A couple of key positions changed but the manager is there and that means the way they play is quite consistent and the way they defend is quite consistent. But the skillset of the different players make it different. But we expect a super-organised opponent, so that’s what we expect. An experienced opponent as well. It means two legs, [the] first [one] away is a clear advantage, what everybody says. It just will be interesting. We are not the same [from] three-and-a-half years ago. We are definitely different and the opponent probably as well. But in these three-and-a-half years I saw 1,500 games probably. I saw Atalanta playing but I cannot really compare it with three-and-a-half years ago because that’s not very prominent in my mind. But it will be tricky for both.