Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on Leicester 'fight', Salah's 30 goals, setting the tone and more

The Reds make the journey to King Power Stadium having increased their Premier League winning streak to six games by beating Brentford last weekend.

Klopp looked ahead to the meeting with the Foxes during a press conference at the AXA Training Centre on Friday morning, where he provided a fitness update on Roberto Firmino and Naby Keita.

In addition, the manager outlined what he expects against Leicester, reflected on the turnaround his side have produced, hailed Mohamed Salah reaching 30 goals for the campaign, and more.

Read a summary below…

On Leicester’s current situation and what he expects from them on Monday…

It was the first year when I arrived, my first season, Leicester won the league. A special story, a very special story, will stay forever. Now the situation is obviously completely different. I cannot really and don’t want to compare with Brendan’s team and now Dean Smith’s team. They’re in a relegation battle, that’s obvious. After this press conference we have the analysis meeting but I saw the game against Everton, for example – really good spells in the game, really good footballing team. But how we all always were and are, will be, in a relegation battle you are not always the best version of yourself, so that’s why it makes it so difficult to be there. But what we have to expect is a team who wants to stay in the league and will fight for that with all they have. That’s what we have to expect. I told the boys that already at the start of our training week, I said, ‘OK, this is now the real fight and we have to make sure we are ready for that’ because [it is] a home game for Leicester and the game after us is I think Newcastle if I’m right, that’s not an easy game as well and they need all the points they can get so I expect a super-difficult and super-intense game, to be honest, with big fight and with brilliant footballers on the pitch. That makes it tricky.

On whether qualifying for Champions League football or not will influence the decision of Liverpool’s transfer targets…

It’s not about that. When I talk to a player – so I’m allowed to talk to a player, which is rarely the case, to be honest – but in the moment when you are and when you talk then you realise then that it is already clarified because we don’t tell anybody in the moment that we will definitely be in the Champions League next year, so if he is talking to us then it’s probably already clear that he knows about that situation. But it’s just a general thing, I think if you join a club you want to reach something together with the club and not surfing on the wave the club created before. It’s one thing. It’s obvious we have to fight for being part of the Champions League and have to fight for trophies and these kinds of things, and if you want to be part of that then you are more than welcome.

There’s only one thing we cannot guarantee this year and that is Champions League football, but all the rest is the same like it was before. It’s a fantastic club with a really, really good football team and an even better one probably, hopefully next year. So that’s it. That’s not so difficult. I have barely faced a situation that you are in a talk with a player and everything sounds great and he says, ‘OK, now see you if…’ That happens not really often. Still Liverpool and that means we are really attractive for a lot of players and should not forget that, and that’s why I’m not concerned about that fact. Of course, everything is more difficult without Champions League, that’s how it is, especially in the long term so we should not do these kinds of things more often. But apart from that, it’s absolutely OK the situation we are in from a talking point of view and from a convincing point of view.

On whether a particular game or incident sparked the Reds’ recent turnaround in form…

We spoke about that quite frequently. We tried to give ourselves the chance for a fresh start with a lot of different things, different football things. [We] had kind of a new start, we agreed on that in the week, I can’t remember which week it was exactly but we had eight or nine days for training between the games and we wanted to use that time to start the new season already, not knowing where it would lead us to but just didn’t want to waste more time. And it was a breath of fresh air for all of us, not only the players but for the coaches as well, and since then things changed.

We work on different subjects, the basic principles stay: it’s about intensity, it’s about counter-pressing, it’s about generally intensive football, these kinds of things. We want to control the game differently, we want to protect our game differently, in a different formation, we want to build up differently. There are so many things we are different [in] and, to be honest, it’s really good fun for us to think about it, to work on it, to create something new for us. And that’s what we did. And then the results came in, that’s for sure no complete coincidence. We know that we needed luck in moments as well, luck we maybe didn’t have in other games before. But now we are in the situation we are in and now we have three more games to play and still the same, we already prepare the next season but knowing that this season [there] is a lot to play for and that’s exactly what we do.

Sometimes you need to change big things to get a turnaround. Most of the time it’s only little things but sometimes you have to change big things. And I think when a coach is in for seven-and-a-half years that’s pretty rare; usually in that time some clubs have three, four, five coaches, which is obviously not great but then that means it’s always new. We were really successful until last year with a specific way, it’s not that we did always the same stuff but it was a way of play we knew about, that it’s successful and works out for us. And all of a sudden it didn’t work out for us. It was always clear that we have to change things but that was at least one good thing of this season: we had a good reason to change things. Imagine we would have changed everything after we nearly won four trophies and start a new season and then we play bad – that would have been really tricky. And that’s why sometimes you need these kinds of moments and we needed it obviously. How I said, when a coach is in that long, you have to change things anyway and in the right moment. That’s why I said I think we caught the right moment maybe for this season a bit late – we will see that – but in general I think it was the right moment.

On whether Salah’s achievement of 30 goals this season is in danger of being overlooked…

No, not from us, not from the Liverpool supporters, maybe from you. I don’t know. This question is now not the first time I hear it. Not from us – I said it a lot of times, he will be an all-time great after he finishes his career, but now he is still in his career and if you see Mo every day there is still a really good few years in his legs and in his body so the numbers will even improve and that’s absolutely great. No, we don’t overlook it but I can imagine with the question asked that often that you might be guilty to overlook it, I don’t know.

On what he enjoys the most about having more time to coach…

It’s recovery and second-day recovery and minus-one session [when you play every three days], that’s true. I enjoy these periods much more, of course, that’s true. And we have that now again. That’s working with the players, improving together, making clear what we want to do and put that into sessions, yes, I enjoy a lot, that’s true and was always the same. But if I wanted that for my whole career – even Mainz played from time to time [European] football – I would have to go to somewhere where there is definitely no [European] football and you have always a full week to train. That’s not what I want as well.

It’s all fine, I love the rhythm with the three games a week. But from time to time it makes massive sense – we don’t open that box now but we spoke a lot about that we in general don’t have enough time to train with the boys, that we play all the time and there must be a change with the schedule. That was obviously not our subject this season because we left all the other competitions pretty early but in a successful season it’s brutal. When you have it, you have to use it and that’s what we try. Now we have time again and that’s what we try to use obviously. I want to see that we trained the full week together, I want to see that in the next week, I want to see little changes, I want to see improvement, that’s true. For that, we have to do the right stuff in training and so far this week I’m pretty confident we did that. That doesn’t mean we will just fly over the Leicester team, no, we have to be ready for a proper fight. But in decisive moments we need to have common solutions and that’s what we are working on.

On whether the team’s current run of form sets the tone for next season...

Yeah, it must. It’s a must. Look, when you just play a bad season – what we did until a few weeks ago – with some highlights, which makes it a bit more difficult to understand really, it makes you even more angry when you think about it, ‘We can play like this but most of the time we played like that?’ So that’s really not cool. So this period is super-important for us because it gives us a massive hint how it could look, and we all know we are in [the] early stages, we have to improve, we have to train a lot, work a lot and to make things more natural and more clear for the boys what we want exactly. That’s all true and that’s why it’s so important that we started it early, and not have to play a season and end up in position 10 or 11 and from the first day we have to prove that everything changed because we have a pre-season – but then the season starts and everything needs then time that we really can use it in the most difficult competition in the world, in the Premier League, and that’s what we will see. But that everybody knows already we go in the right direction is really helpful.

Inside Training: Rondos and crossbar challenge

On the improvement in Liverpool’s form and resilience away from home...

So, our away record is still not brilliant this season. I think we are, I’m not sure, third or fourth in the home table and somewhere in the away table, so it’s still not great. So that’s, of course, something. But we had that discussion years ago, I think, very early when I came here that at home we created something like a fortress again but then away we were not a top-six or top-four team that time. And we realised it’s not that difficult. The difference is not as big as we might think – but there is a difference and we have to make sure we are ready for that as well. That Anfield is a massive help and boost in a lot of moments is no secret and that we don’t have that, but we have three, four, five thousand people away and they are completely mad, they are completely on their toes for the whole 95 minutes. Maybe some of them don’t see us every week and they have to travel a lot or are from the area where we are playing, so they are really excited and I love that. I love the away atmosphere these people create. So it’s not about that, we just were not consistent enough, so we needed too much help from the outside in moments this season and didn’t use it then always. That’s why we are in the position we are.

But again, we play a really bad season – and I think everybody in this room agrees – and now we have 62 points, so it’s strange. There is still quality in the boys, in us, and I’m really happy that we could show up a little bit. Wherever it will end up, it’s really not about that. I know everybody wants to go now to the Champions League – I understand it 100 per cent, I want [to], it’s just not really likely. That’s the situation we created. But to show up and show again that we are able to do special things, I’m really happy about. Winning six games in a row is special and if it would be easy, we would have done it much more often, other teams would have done it much more often. Adding the seventh on it is even more difficult and eight or nine really difficult because it’s football and the other teams prepare as well for the games and they have as well their targets and all these kind of things, so that makes it really difficult. But this part of the season obviously gave us a clear sign, ‘OK, we are still there. Not everything is bad about us and around us. Now we had a bad season, that’s it, but let’s see what we can make of it.’

On chasing Champions League qualification and previous experience of overcoming the odds...

It’s not that we mention it but everybody who was involved in these moments will never forget it in our entire lives, that’s how it is. That means it’s part of us. Yeah, you are right, we were around when miracles happened, that’s true, but it was then still in our hands. So, we had to score against West Brom [in 2021] obviously and we had to win against Barcelona [in 2019]. Now we have to win but that would not mean that anything changed [if] the other teams win all their games. That’s a difference. I know that weeks ago it was completely out of sight – I couldn’t see it at all – but that didn’t mean that we will not try to get closer. That’s the only thing we did, we got closer.

And I’m pretty sure we were in a situation like that years ago when we qualified first for the Champions League; I think Chelsea was winning behind us and all the time, winning, winning, winning, so we had to win all the games. It’s not comfortable. In the end, we made it anyway and that’s what I expect. It’s not comfortable. Newcastle and United would be happy probably if we would not be there anymore and Brighton just starts losing from now on and Tottenham, it’s just safe and they can concentrate on other stuff, I don’t know what. But still it’s more likely that they will do it and I respect that. If they finish the season above us, they deserve it and that’s how I see it.