Press conference'Winning football games is the best energiser you can have'

By the end of May, the Reds will have played every game available to them across four competitions this season, having now reached the finals of the Emirates FA Cup and Champions League.

Klopp saw his outfit lift the Carabao Cup in February and they remain just one point behind Manchester City in the chase for Premier League glory.

In the second part of his pre-Tottenham Hotspur press conference, the boss was quizzed over how his players are battling mental fatigue, as well as the form of key defensive figure Virgil van Dijk.

Read on to see what he had to say ahead of the 7.45pm BST kick-off at Anfield on Saturday…

On how his squad is dealing with the mental fatigue of a gruelling season...

Point one, we accept it. It is intense, we know it. Winning football games is the best energiser you can have, having big targets is a fantastic energiser, having seen the sunlight, whatever it is, helps massively. The mood, the atmosphere in the team is good, great. We spoke about players who are not involved never are in a bad mood, or whatever, everybody enjoys being around. Everybody is desperate to play the next game. That's actually what the boys want to do. So, we have to make sure that they are, I suppose, physically ready. Then the targets we have make us mentally ready, because that's how it is.

I don't think we had this kind of problem at Villarreal in the first half. The season is so long, and again fighting for it or whatever, they had a super start and we didn’t react well. That can happen, that's reasonable. It can be for this reason, but I don't think it was – we just reacted bad. So, yes, our sport is long – a marathon or climbing mountains, stuff like this. There's long things to do as well. You have to be always focused and always in the moment. When you think you’re tired, you’re definitely tired. As long as you ignore it, you can go much longer, so the inner voices calm them down or shut them up if possible. Then you can go for long. It's like this.

We do everything that the boys can [do to] recover in the best possible way, as far as we know. And then it’s a fight on the highest level. If you want to go for everything, then you have to fight for everything. That means you want it. You don't fight a fight on this level because you have to fight. You fight this fight because you want to fight. That's what we do. So, I have no idea where it will lead us, really no idea, but so far, it’s absolutely outstanding. Now we have to try to continue.

On Van Dijk’s impressive return physically and mentally after last season’s injury...

In situations like this it is always different reasons. The first is the surgeon. Number two is the player, because – [and] he will say the same – there were darker moments in that period, obviously, when he was really not over the moon about the situation and we were not. Not because somebody made a mistake, just because [he] was not around and these kinds of things. So, he needed time to get a bit away from everything and all these kinds of things.

So, surgeon, player [and] rehab team. That's it. That worked – all three – really well. Time [is] number four – no rush, there's no chance. I know it was that time in Holland people thought he might be [at the Euros] – there was no chance. In the moment when he said 'no', our rehab team said he needs for sure another bah, bah, bah weeks. We didn't even think about Holland, it just came up because [it was] a public thing to talk about, 'Is he ready for that? Will he be close?' because you count the months and all these kinds of things. There was no chance.

First full pre-season, [he] managed it good through that because we had all the other boys available as well. Then he gained fitness through playing. [In the] first half of the season, you could see from time to time 'here a little bit less' and 'here a little bit less', but people obviously expect that he is back immediately, all the rest as well. If that would be that easy, much more players would be world class. So, it's not easy. We came through that as well, so here we go. And long may it continue.