H E N R I K H MKHIT A R YA N “S o meti mes y o u h a v e t o concedeagoalinorderto d i s c o v e r y o u r weakness”
Are you challenging for the Bundesliga title or is second place really the limit now? We try to be their main rival in the Bundesliga, but it’s very difficult to compete with Bayern Munich. They are one of the three best teams in the world, with Barcelona and Real Madrid. However, it’s not impossible. We have to play well and win our games – and then we’ll see whether we can gain any ground or not.
Was last year’s collapse just psychological? I really don’t know, because during the second half of last season we proved we could still play well and win matches. It was the same group of players and the same coach who had won the league twice before. I guess it was just bad luck in some of the games.
When you joined the club, you were thinking a lot about the record transfer fee and felt the need to justify it. Klopp told you to relax and not worry so much. Have you managed to become more carefree? It’s true that Klopp helped me a lot in this regard. He told me that a transfer sum has nothing to do with what a player wants or asks for – it’s just a thing between two clubs. I realised he was right and just forgot about the money. I also stopped thinking about other things that used to bother me. Against Frankfurt, in our last home game before the winter break, I missed an open goal from two yards out. In the past, it would have haunted me. Now I forget about it and get on with it.
Is that because the team is now scoring so freely that you think a miss isn’t so important, as someone else – Reus or Aubameyang – will find the target? No, I just think to myself: ‘This is football – onene day you score three, another day you don’t score any’. ny’.
The team is scoring a lot of goals, but conceding a lot, too. Is that the main weakness? Sometimes you have to concede a goal in order to find out what your weakness is. There is always something to learn, and you can always improve. Of course we don’t want to concede goals or lose games – but if you don’t concede any goals, and if you never lose a match, you might start to think everything’s perfect.
Will we see you in the Premier League? It may be the best league in the world, although I think the Bundesliga is on the same level. Not in terms of money, of course – I mean the football.
But despite all that money, the English clubs are struggling on the international stage. Why is that? I have no idea why. Maybe the money isn’t spent in the right way there.
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