GHOULS GALORE!
Halloween clash with Brighton holds no fears for Klopp, who was never spooked by that stuttering title defence and now presides over a Liverpool team who have made their best scoring start to a Premier League season EVER v
BY
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 today, and asked if there were ever 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 solve that problem, it was clear we will 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, which has had their best goalscoring start to a Premier League campaign ever, is even better than the titlewinning side, Klopp said: “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 has clicked, 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.”
Klopp’s only problem is keeping all his players happy, with his rotation policy seeing even the likes of Sadio Mane rested.
Only Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk have started every Premier League game so far. And the manager admits his stars all want to start every game.
“Yes, Mo wants to play every minute of every game, that’s true. But still he never did it.
“None of them want to be rested and, if they do, then it is always in other games, it’s never the game I choose to rest them in.”
Klopp knows that makes players unhappy, but he said: “I don’t think it’s possible to keep them all happy.
“When you play for Liverpool, the thing you have to do is win games, and as a footballer you learn early that you have to accept the decisions a manager makes.
My team is doing that obviously – that doesn’t mean they are always happy about the decision, they just accept it.”
They are more than accepting it, Liverpool are now many people’s favourites to lift the title, but Klopp (right) believes they will have to be perfect to do it.
“This is just the standard of the league,” he added. “To be in this position in March, April or May, you have to perform at an incredibly high level and be incredibly consistent – and that’s the thing you can never be sure about.”