As cool as ice.. but every team has a weakness and they know we’re on fire
MIRROR SPORT EXCLUSIVE
IT is Liverpool’s biggest game in a decade, one which could send them back to the summit of world football. In the build-up to the Champions Cha League final, the Daily Da Mirror went to the h heart of the Anfield revolution, with an in depth, passionate, noholds-barred interview with the man behind it, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp.
This was no ordinary sit-down though. In a unique meeting, Mirror columnist and Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler talked with Klopp, and used all his insight and knowledge of one of the biggest clubs in the world to get into the mind of the manager. FOWLER: We need n to cut to the chas chase and talk about what w the whole w world wants to kn know: how to beat Real Madrid... KLOPP: T That will be a sh short one, eh?
FOWLER: I look at Ma Madrid, and think, ‘Marcelo, brilliant’, but maybe a w weakness n f for t them too, as it leaves space where you have strength?
KLOPP: You saw it, everybody saw it, seems obvious: ‘Marcelo, what an offensive player, but... he can’t defend’. They won the Champions League twice, they are again in the final! Bayern Munich thought they were the better team in the two games, but what is better at the end?
Real need four chances to score twice. Bayern needed eight to score one. They are experienced from head to toe. There is no weakness. Football is not so easy that you can say, ‘If Marcelo (right) makes that run, and we leave Mo Salah there in that space, Salah gets in against Ramos’.
FOWLER: When you beat them with Borussia Dortmund in 2013, you shifted tactically, from trying to overload on the right initially, to overloading on the left, where Ronaldo doesn’t track back.
KLOPP: And Mario Gotze played man-marking against Alonso! That’s true. Everybody knew it before. Alonso gets the ball, turns, Ronaldo is on his bike already. So we played Mario man-marking against Alonso in the 4-1 at home. And it worked pretty well. But it’s not – you know this, you played the game – it’s not that easy making these things against Real Madrid. They are cool as ice.
You have a chance against them and they are not bothered. It doesn’t affect them. Have you seen them, even one time, panicking because someone had a chance against them? Ice. They think, ‘Opponents have chances, it happens. We have a chance, we score’. Pep Guardiola said once, ‘ The big teams really have a cup of coffee and then, bang, they go’. So, if you have a chance against them, you’d better take it.
FOWLER: You know you can beat them though...
KLOPP: Each team in the world has a weakness. We played against Barcelona at Wembley and we were on fire, we beat them so well. There are opportunities for us, we know that – and they know it as well. All the teams said it: against Juve, Real were lucky, against Bayern, they were lucky, but they are the third time in a row in the final, the fourth time in five years, so what does that say? Their experience prepares them for difficult situations, so we will cause them problems and they will cause us problems. And, in the end, we have to be there in the decisive moments, we have to score when we have the chances. FOWLER: I have a sense that you felt, when you beat Porto 5-0 away, that it sent
out the message you could win it.
KLOPP: I think the 5-0 was the first time everybody went, ‘ Wow!’ Porto was the first time people asked, ‘ What is going on there?’ Because Porto are a really good team. And that night we were really surprised by ourselves to go there and win 5-0 – there’s no chance to do that!
And then Man City, for sure. For me they were THE favourite for the Champions League this year, No.1 favourite. The way they play, they decide as a club they have to win it, and then you beat them. In the end, we are still here.
So, we are kind of this very big club with a team which can be really annoying, REALLY annoying, but with high-quality football as well.
We didn’t win anything so far, so we are of course not the favourites. But no problem with that, it doesn’t mean we don’t want to win it.
We only know, the way to do it is a lot of work for us. But we will have used the time before the final well, believe me.
FOWLER: I hate to mention losing finals, but can you learn from, say, the 2016 Europa League defeat to Sevilla?
KLOPP: No. This time it is completely different. Not only now, but my final with Dortmund (against Bayern Munich in 2013) too. We will be ready, that is all I know. If it will be enough, I don’t know, because it is Real Madrid. But we will be ready.
The game in Basel (against Sevilla) we were ‘dead legs’, no energy any more. We couldn’t strike back. The road to Basel and Kiev was similar, but we are now a better football team of course.