Press conferenceJürgen Klopp on seven years at LFC, season so far and Mohamed Salah

Speaking to reporters at the AXA Training Centre, the Reds boss discussed the various challenges he's faced in England so far, while also dissecting the play and mentality of his No.11.

Read on to see what Klopp had to say with a full transcript…

On his seven years in the Premier League and how much English football has changed...

Arsenal was always there; City was always there just [a] different [manager]. I think it got better and better and better, it's incredible. Football really evolves, improves a lot. I have to think about football in general... better, quicker, more intense. I think the Premier League has now pretty much everybody in the world – I don't want to forget anybody – but if you are one of the top managers, a year later you arrive somehow in the Premier League. That's now pretty much the case, or you can go back, like Jose [Mourinho] to Italy or Carlo [Ancelotti] to Spain. But otherwise, if you show up in a league then the Premier League is not waiting and picks you. So it means top-class managers in the league really, which makes life uncomfortable for all other ones then around, obviously, because the better you are coached, the better you can play. That's the league. It's the best league in the world, no shadow of a doubt, I would say. But that's it. I actually had no sense at all to think about the last seven years in the last three months. That means I don't know really but I hope you're kind of happy with the answer because it hit me by surprise now.

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On whether there are similarities between Mikel Arteta's job at Arsenal and the one he inherited at Liverpool...

I'm pretty sure that Arsenal fans are pretty happy with the situation they are in now. They don't expect to win the title immediately – I don't know Arsenal fans, too many at least. Maybe, but I'm not too much on the Arsenal subject, so I cannot really compare that. I said now everything about the team I know and could talk about the teams they had in the last few years. Arsenal is a big club, no doubt about that, and we had big games against them, especially home games [with] quite a lot of goals scored at both ends, these kind of things – 5-5 in the cup competition with young teams. So it's a great club [that] stood under Arsene [Wenger] for a specific kind of football, then a few changes but then pretty quickly they found their way back – you can see this again. Arsenal plays Europa League, didn't make it last year, but now they are ready for the next step and they have to see how they deal with all the competitions – three, four competitions coming up – and these kind of things. It might be similar but I don't really know.

On whether Salah is 'close to exploding' in terms of scoring and performances...

I think with Mo it's like with us: I hope, I don't know, I hope we are close to exploding, let me say it like this. Again, you can say whatever you want about Mo and this and that. Yeah, is it his season so far? No, like for all of us. We can pick them all out and say, 'Is it his season? No. Is it his season? No.' Whose season was it yet from our side? Nobody, because we are used to a specific picture we have in our mind, 'Ah, that's him.' But we are human beings. We have to make sure that the team performs on the level that everybody can be the best version of themselves again, so that's the idea behind the whole thing. But with Mo it's like this, even when the goalscoring numbers are not that crazy, how often he's involved – the passes for Darwin now in the last game. Just the problem is if we don't score around that, nobody appreciates that. His passing is not bad actually. Then you have not scoring, losing here a ball – but yeah, three, four key passes [were] exceptional.

As a coach, my life is then easier because I watch the whole game again and not only the highlights. It means I see these little things as well, so for me it's fine. But I understand. Nobody in the world can cope with the [Erling] Haaland situation in the moment, it's crazy what he's doing. How he shook his head when he scored now the second one in the Champions League, 'Obviously I can do what I want, the ball bounced in front of my feet.' But he's an exceptional player in an exceptional team, so that obviously works pretty well together. And I don't think we should compare now in this moment anybody with that – at least I don't do that. It's all fine.

On Salah's eagerness to produce goalscoring form...

He wants to score goals, definitely. Desperately, 100 per cent. That will never change. If you call him in 20 years, it will be the same – definitely. That cannot change. But he brings himself together and from my point of view Mo defended, for example, against Rangers at an incredibly high level. My situation of the game was when Mo defended the half-spaces and won the ball from behind, when he came from the blindside [of the opponent] and won the ball there. That was my situation of the game. I didn't tell anybody yet and you might not find it if you watch the game back, but it was a great situation because that showed what we had to do that day. From that moment on, we can play football. If this team defends to its highest level, we are able to play some good stuff and that's what we have to do.

On whether he thought he'd be at Liverpool for seven years when he arrived...

I had no plans for seven years, let me say it like this. It was not that I thought, 'We do this now and in seven years we will get the reward for that.' No, I didn't think that. But I think in the [unveiling] press conference I mentioned four years. Did I say if I am here in four years then we would [have] probably won something? I'm not sure if that worked out 100 per cent. That day I was happy to survive the press conference because my English skills were really not that good. I know I said a lot of things, some of them people can remember and some of them they thankfully forgot. That's how it is with press conferences, I am still the same today!

On whether he 'ever thinks seven years is long enough'...

[Laughs] I should have done that before I signed a new contract! No, the situation in the clubs was really different. That's a little explanation, the seven-year spell is not planned or whatever, or because I lost energy or these kind of things. I was manager at Mainz and after three years we got promoted to the Bundesliga and three years later we got relegated to the second Bundesliga. We tried one more year and the club needed a change because players left us for the Bundesliga. [Mainz] needed a fresh start, definitely. I was full of energy, I directly went to Dortmund and it was all fine. I could have stayed there [Mainz], they wanted me to stay, nobody thought, 'It's done.' We just couldn't make the Bundesliga again that year because we were fourth in the second league.

Dortmund, seven years and it was just [because] the situation was players got pulled up – bought for other clubs or left for whatever reason. It was really a hard job to do and to do that constantly, instead of developing a team, making two steps back. Everybody would ask you, 'Why are you not as good as last year?' or 'Why are you not better than last year?' By the way, we would be happy if we could have been as good as last year, we just lost key players in different positions. To give us a bit of time, that was really intense and really exhausting. That was the reason why I said, 'Come on, we have to stop it here.' I actually had no energy problem, not at all. I just said I would now take a year's holiday because I think it was fancy at that time: I think Pep [Guardiola] did it and Thomas Tuchel did it and I thought, 'Why should I not take a year holiday? Let's give it a try.' I couldn't do it, after four months I was here!

I have absolutely no problem with energy and the situation is completely different here. I can understand that I left after seven years and now we are here in a difficult situation and people take that, but if you think twice about it then you would realise the situation is completely different. It's different. Being here seven years is intense, no doubt about that; I got older, everyone got older, but that's time. It's nice as well. I got so many things back that give you a boost, that's where we are now. Yes, this is a difficult time. Did I think before the season we would be ninth after matchday seven? No, because I don't think about these kind of things but now this is the basis we have and now let's go from here. If [there is] one club who has a chance to go through it together it's us. You don't have to do it always the same way like all the others.

I know with one point more Chelsea sacked Thomas Tuchel. In Germany everybody was saying, 'Tuchel got sacked with 10 points and Klopp stays in a job with nine points' but you don't have to ask me why that is the case. We still have the chance to create something really special from this point. Does it look like at the moment we will be champions at the end of the year? Unfortunately not, but in all other competitions we are not out yet and nobody knows where we will end up in the league. So, let's give it a go. That's it. Difficult? Yes. Impossible? No. That's enough – let's go from here.