Press conference'A proper game' - Jürgen Klopp's Newcastle v Liverpool preview

Match three of the new season sees the Reds visit St. James’ Park this weekend seeking to build on the four points they have collected from their opening two fixtures.

Klopp assessed the clash with the Magpies during a press conference at the AXA Training Centre this morning, where he also provided the latest squad fitness news.

Read on for a summary of the manager’s media briefing…

On Sunday’s trip to Newcastle and looking to ‘lay down a marker’ for the season…

It’s an away game at Newcastle. Newcastle are an incredibly strong team, qualified for the Champions League, fully deserved. Super development under Eddie Howe, I have to say, smart business. I don’t want to miss anybody but probably the two standouts in this window: Tonali and Barnes. Really good business. Super-intense style, massive atmosphere there, so this is a tough one. Played a really good first game where Aston Villa were really good as well, to be honest. In the end, the result didn’t reflect probably the full game, but in the end how they used their counter-attacks and stuff like this was absolutely exceptional. The speed they have is really good. Newcastle since last year at least, they don’t concede a lot but score. So that’s a proper game, and we tried since Sunday night to make sure that we are ready for it. That’s it.

On Alexis Mac Allister being available this weekend after the suspension for his red card versus AFC Bournemouth was overturned…

Very good news. Massive [relief]. I was not sure after the game. When I saw the pictures back I was pretty sure that it’s not a red card but that doesn’t mean then immediately that our appeal will be successful. I think we could make the point really clear and the pictures were pretty clear as well. You don’t have that a lot of times that pretty much everybody agrees on [that] this is not a red card and should not be a red card. It’s a bit of a message early in the season as well. Yes, harsh tackles and stuff like this should always be punished, I absolutely support that 100 per cent. But it was not a harsh tackle, it was just a touch in the situation. How I said, it was for us on the day already tough enough to play then in the circumstances – around about 40 minutes with 10 men. We were obviously not prepared for that but we scored the third goal, which was very helpful. And then we had to fight through it. It was a massive relief when I heard that it is overturned.

On his strong record against Eddie Howe and his teams...

I remember, unfortunately, in this case a defeat at Bournemouth around about Christmas, I think. So, no, there’s nothing. Eddie is a super coach, a super manager. My first home game was against Bournemouth in the League Cup – 1-0, Nathaniel Clyne, if I am right. A rare occasion [when] Clyney scored and we had a massively-changed team on the day. No, I can’t explain that. Obviously we were, for sure, a few times on the lucky side of it but that’s it.

On Wataru Endo’s debut as a substitute against Bournemouth last weekend...

Yeah, it’s still early days but yes, you’re right. [The debut] came after one-and-a-half days, pretty much – half a session, playing in a team who have to defend with 10 men, it’s really difficult. I think he did really exceptionally well. Now we have had him here [for] three sessions this week – looks good. He is a good player, just like that, but I really think if it would be that easy to bring somebody in in the centre of the park and it would work out perfectly after three days, why did we train then with all the others so long? We could just do it always like that – bring them together and play at the weekend. I was really happy and, no, it was not expected. We had him on the bench to bring him on, but obviously later and in a slightly different situation. He did well and now we can use that. The first marker is set, if you want, and now let’s go from there.

On Liverpool’s centre-back options...

In this room it is always like, ‘We could do this, we could do that, don’t you think we can do that...’ Maybe one day you sit a day in my chair and you have to deal with all the other stuff as well. In an ideal world we have six, seven, eight centre-halves and cover for absolutely everything. No, we need to be lucky with injuries, there is no doubt about that. I have no doubt about the quality of the boys we have. We have with Jarell Quansah, a super-talented player as well here available. So, in this moment we are covered but it is not dreamland where you can be prepared for absolutely each situation. We had to learn that in the past as well a couple of times. We will try to do our absolute best to have a squad for next week, a squad for us where we can react on pretty much everything. Is that possible? We will see.