YOU DON’T CARE A JOT ABOUT ANY OF THE PLAYERS

Klopp: No top-flight team can be brilliant every game, the schedule is simply too demanding for them to hit their peak

IT was a history-making win for Liverpool, one which confirms their place alongside the greatest teams that Anfield has witnessed.

Yet of all the many qualities this remarkable, recordbreaking team has displayed over the past two years, only one was evident in Saturday’s victory over West Ham.

It was all about belief. “Mentality,” as their manager Jurgen Klopp puts it. They have now gone 63 matches in the Premier League without defeat on their own turf, equalling a club record.

For Klopp, though, it was a bitter-sweet moment.

He admires the spirit of his side above all else but he is frustrated that the so-called best l eague i n the world simply doesn’t have the conditions to serve up breathtaking football.

“It’s not possible for us to be brilliant at the moment,” he said. “We just have to dig in, and we did that, so I’m happy.” Klopp said other Premier League bosses feel t hey are being forced to deliver a substandard product.

“I spoke before the game to David

Moyes about it – you can only fight when your body is ready,” the Kop chief said. “It’s an incredibly difficult time – in the outside world , and for the boys as well.

It’s a very tough sch edule given the numb er of games. So we have to find a way to help the boys and to maintain a certain quality. That goes for everyone, not just us.”

For Klopp there is an answer, if only the Premier League would consider the health and well-being of the players. “If we were allowed five subs it would have helped West Ham as much as us,” the German (left) added. Critics argue that, by allowing five subs to be used, the Premier League would hand a huge advantage to

bigger clubs with bigger squads.

But Klopp said:

“It doesn’t help one team over another. It helps the players, and they are the ones at risk.

“Bu t we d o n’ t have that. So we have to try everything to win football games. It’s not about shining, or flying, or whatever, it’s about hard work. The determination and desire of the boys, the will to play football, to deal with setbacks, is really exceptional.

“Football is always about finding a way and tonight the boys found it again.”

Klopp has a valid point. The seven English teams competing in Europe are looking very ordinary right now. That may make the