KLOPP: WE’RE NOT MILES BEHIND CITY
Kop boss insists his side will click soon
JURGEN KLOPP has boldly claimed Liverpool are not ‘500 miles away’ from Manchester City and believes his side’s season is finally ready for lift-off.
The showpiece Premier League game this weekend is at Wembley tomorrow and Liverpool and Tottenham head into the match with their confidence soaring.
Klopp was thrilled with the clinical manner his players put seven goals past Maribor in Slovenia on Tuesday, the same night Mauricio Pochettino’s team came of age with a 1-1 away to Real Madrid.
Pochettino startled Madrid with tactics to subdue them and has an idea in mind to keep Liverpool’s forward line of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho — who is once again the subject of stories linking him to Barcelona — in check.
Klopp, though, is unfazed about what the Argentine has in mind because he feels Liverpool are ready to click. City may have made a blistering start to the campaign with the best goal return after eight games since 1894, but Klopp’s confidence in his own attack is unflinching and he is adamant they can go to any venue and impose themselves, just as Pep Guardiola’s team do.
‘I don’t compare City with us but I think everyone can see we are not 500 miles away,’ said Klopp. ‘But they fly. It was so far a very decisive day when we lost 5-0 last month. I thought we did OK.
‘Dealing with a 5-0 defeat is not the easiest thing, we did well, we didn’t lose confidence but we were not that fluent and it was not like we could close our eyes and finish. They did exactly the opposite.
‘I saw the Stoke goals, you see the shot from Fernandinho and you think, “If it works, it works even like this”. They are a fantastic team and we don’t have to compare, but it starts so early again with us having to apologise for the season so far because one team is flying. They were good in the transfer market, they probably did exactly what they had to do.
‘The football they play, I would say is not something we are too far away from but to be as clinical as they have been so far? We weren’t. That’s the thing. We are still in the race, not with City in the moment because they have I don’t how many points. We have all the other things. I don’t say we should only fight for top four place. Performance-wise we are a team that should be there, but we have to get the results.
‘In the end we will see where it leads us but again it could be a good basis to build on for the next year. That’s how it is.’
Pochettino has a concern about the fitness of key midfielder Victor Wanyama, who will see a specialist next week over a knee issue, but his mind is primarily focused on keeping up with the pacesetters at the top of the table and he intends to spring a surprise on Klopp.
‘ Sometimes it works,’ said Pochettino, who has insisted Danny Rose has a long-term future at the club after he returned to action in the Bernabeu as a substitute. ‘Sometimes it doesn’t work. But I feel the same. After the game if I win or lose, in my decision, I cannot regret it.
‘We believe we can win in the way we decide to play. I accept it. That is part of football. Everyone waits to see the shape or the system or the starting XI, and everyone disagrees. It is difficult to be in complete agreement with the manager.’