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KLOPP: I NEVER DOUBTED REDS WOULD RISE AGAIN
JURGEN KLOPP had zero doubt his team would rise again from the ashes of their injury-ravaged title defence.
In fact, he didn’t even offer it a second thought – because of the desire and mentality of a squad who have the look of champions again after a remarkable run of 23 matches unbeaten in all competitions.
That is the best since the great Liverpool side of the late 1980s, who went 24 games unbeaten from January 1 to May 26 1989, a run ended only on that dramatic night when Arsenal’s last-minute goal snatched the title.
Klopp’s men can match that run against Brighton this afternoon. Asked if there were any doubts his team would come back to their best, he replied: “I didn’t doubt it, I didn’t really even have to think about it.
“You all forgot how massive a difference it is when you lose pretty much your whole defence in October. Everyone still expects you to win all the games, you are Liverpool. When we solved that problem, it was clear we would be better again and that is the situation. It doesn’t mean we will win but it gives us a chance.”
Asked if this Liverpool side, which has had their best goalscoring start to a Premier League campaign ever, is even better than the title-winning one, Klopp replied: “It’s not too important, you have to be as good as you can be in the moment.The world is like this.
You win 5-0 against United and everything is perfect but it was not.
“So far it clicked a lot so we had some pretty impressive scorelines, but we don’t expect it to happen all the time. We have no problem winning a game 1-0.Absolutely not.”
Brighton manager Graham Potter goes up against Klopp today after facing Pep Guardiola a week ago, suffering a 4-1 defeat by Manchester City. And when it comes to a game of managerial Top Trumps, Potter admits he is finding it hard to split the two rivals.
Asked to pick attributes from both legends to create the perfect football boss, he was stumped.
“The truth is I don’t know them that well. I have 20 minutes with them twice every year, and they’re both gentlemen and they are both fantastic coaches,” he said.
“It’s incredible what they’ve done for English football, what they have done for their clubs, how inspirational they have been. I’ve just got the utmost respect for them.”