The Reds boss believes that the club can still end this campaign on a high by securing Champions League football
Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool still have hope of making this season a success as he sets his sights on finishing in the Premier League’s top four.
Liverpool were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid in the quarter-final round, and the Reds face a difficult battle to return to Europe’s top club competition next season.
As things stand, Liverpool sit sixth in the Premier League, three points behind fourth-place West Ham and two points behind fifth-place Chelsea.
What did Klopp have to say?
“I’m not sure how the people outside see that, [but] for us we can make this season still a success [by] qualifying for the Champions League,” he said. “Because we won the league last year, that doesn’t mean the only thing what is possible for us to be a success would be winning the league – that would be really mad.
“That’s the problem why a lot of teams then get problems after winning something. We are not in that mood. We don’t chase our own shadow or however you want to say that, and say, ‘Oh my God, how can we get that good again?’ No, no, no. We know about all the necessary steps and all these kind of things we have to do.
“Yes, we are in a situation and we were before. And we know we have to be in that mood and we have to chase everybody – the team we play and all the others without playing them, but not in the same moment, just around that, that we really put pressure on them. That’s how it is. We felt it. I’m not sure if it was ’17 but maybe it was when Chelsea came up, they were winning all the time and it’s different.
“If we go in a game, I think, ‘OK, if we win it’s good. If not, it’s not so important. Then oh my God, Chelsea won again.’ So you go in the game in a different mood – we know that. We still did it, [we] made it that year but it was tricky. We can only make it difficult for the other teams and the only way we can make it difficult for them is by winning our own games. That’s the way we try to use.”
Uncertainty for Henderson
Klopp went on to discuss Jordan Henderson’s availability, with the Liverpool skipper still out of action due to a groin injury.
Henderson has missed Liverpool’s last nine matches after undergoing surgery and Klopp says he isn’t sure when he’ll have his captain back in training.
“I don’t know. He’s not in training yet – I think we can say that and all the rest we will see,” he said.
“It makes just not too much sense, and I don’t know it really, to make this kind of – in German we say ‘water-level announcements’ – running commentaries.
“I don’t know. He looks good, that’s the good news, but not in training yet.”