We don’t have to be the best... we just have to beat them
KLOPP ON TRAIL OF CITY
EVEN Jurgen Klopp accepts Manchester City are the best in the world.
And with incredible financial muscle at their disposal, many would assume their period of dominance will be unending.
Klopp has other ideas. He knows his side were way off the pace this season but knows too how to beat the new champions.
“They have advantages but we still won the league and the Champions League,” he said.
And that is why he is optimistic about the prospect of taking back the Premier League crown that was snatched from their grasp this week.
“I am not interested in being the coach of the best team in the world. I am interested in being the coach of the team who can beat the best team in the world.
“And if two or three of them play in our league, we will try to beat them. And if we can beat some others as well, we will have enough points to win something. It is not the case to moan or cry about our situation. Our situation is fine. We never look at other clubs and say they can do something and we can’t.” While City are the benchmark Klopp believes next season will be even tougher because of the challenge also offered by Chelsea and tonight’s opponents Manchester United. All have been linked with big-money moves to further strengthen, but the Liverpool manager insists his side will “not do a lot, anyway”, unless someone wants to leave.
He wonders whether stars such as Kylian Mbappe, above, will in fact be on the move this summer.
“I hear a lot about big-money moves. Is Mbappe going or not, Haaland, Sancho? I don’t see that happening because the football world is still not in the same place it was before,” he said.
“A year ago people didn’t know how football will go on. One year on and we speak about what we can do in the transfer window.
“The budget will go down massively so having more say in the club’s decisions, changing the owner model and then signing Haaland in the same moment for £150 million doesn’t work.”
It will help if his side can reach the riches of the Champions League next season, and that means beating United in a game he describes as “a crime” for the fixture pile-up it has heaped on his rivals.
And Klopp will never give up on a top-four finish, adding: “Not playing Champions League does not help but there is still a chance – and as long as we have a chance, we should not speak about it as if we have no chance. If not we have to deal with it.”
MANCHESTER UTD (probable): Henderson; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Bailly, Shaw; McTominay, Fred; Greenwood, Fernandes, Rashford; Cavani.
LIVERPOOL (probable): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Phillips, Robertson; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Thiago, Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Mane.