Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THE PRESSURE IS ON.. BIG TIME
Klopp: It’s our duty to fight and get this club back where it belongs..failure is NOT an option
FOR Jurgen Klopp, the prize at the end of a tricky Champions League play-off is obvious: “It is the chance for this club to make a statement.”
The Liverpool manager knows victory over Hoffenheim tonight to reach the group stages is a necessity for a legendary name which has been away from Europe’s elite club for too long.
He knows his task is to deliver this historic institution back into the big time where the expectation of owners and fans says they belong.
Yet he knows too, the consequences of failing to deliver that dream.
It makes tonight’s encounter a tightrope to be walked with trepidation, for his own reputation, and that of his club.
Yet in true Klopp fashion, he refuses to bow to that pressure.
“Yes, this would be a statement for our club and supporters – and I do not think it makes a lot of sense that if you have big chance you think about the consequences if you lose it,” he explained.
“We are all excited about the possibility. You can look on it as a final or in different ways as a fan, as an owner, as a player or as a manager but in the end it is a football game.
“It would be a big step. In finals you go for it and try your best.” Klopp has banned talk of the consequences of defeat because he has told his men they can only show the same positive attitude from the first leg.
“It is not allowed to make it bigger from my point of view,” he said. “I am not going to say to the players, ‘Oh think about what will happen if we don’t do it’. There are enough people around who think like this.
“I will not think
about this when I am at home in my bed and think- ing about the game.
“It is not about what can happen, it is about what we can influence. I know of the legendary European nights at Anfield, they are really special and we need them.
“Everyone who wants this needs to do their job in this match. I can guarantee the boys will fight for everything.
“It does not mean we will do it, but it means we will fight for it. I hope we will show the world what we are able to do.”
Unspoken through all of Klopp’s rational assessment of the task he faces, is recognition of the barriers he has had placed in his way, as he tries to repeat the European successes his great Dortmund side enjoyed.
Failure tonight – and the tie is by no means over despite Liverpool leading 2-1 from the first leg – would mean the spotlight turning harshly on his own role, and the job he has done since arriving at Anfield almost two years ago.
Yet given the problems the manager has faced this summer, and the distractions which have befallen his team, some would say the spotlight should fall instead on the club’s owners.
It was, he said in May, a summer where Liverpool could not break even in the transfer market. They had to spend big to bring in the star names which would transform him team from potential contenders to genuine heavyweights.
Only Mohamed Salah has remotely fitted that bill.
Attempts to sign the likes of Naby Keita, Virgil van Dijk and, briefly – and however much a distant dream – Kylian Mbappe, have come to nothing, and the Reds look desperately short in terms of squad strength to challenge on two fronts.
Even worse, the saga surrounding Philippe Coutinho has been hugely distracting, with every big-money offer from Barcelona and transfer request from the player suspiciously arriving on the eve of a game.
The Reds went into the first leg against Hoffenheim with the fallout from that situation, and also with injuries to the Brazilian, Adam Lallana, Daniel Sturridge and Nathaniel Clyne.
Yet Klopp has refused to allow that to distract him, and would not point the finger at his owners... or his players, whom he insisted had handled the distractions supremely.
“That is what I expect from us. That is how we have to handle injuries and the other things,’’ he added.
“If you suffer too much then you have to get back on track and that is what we did.
“I am fine with things so far. We improved from the Watford game to the Hoffenheim game to the Crystal Palace game, won by the only goal from Sadio Mane (left), and now we want to make the next step. We have to take it.”