I don’t want to be the best... I want to beat the best
Reds boss Klopp thrives as the underdog as he insists splashing cash doesn’t make his side top boys
JURGEN KLOPP claims he wants to beat rather than be the best.
The Liverpool boss has revelled as the underdog, from his first days as a coach at Mainz and then Borussia Dortmund, and insists his mentality won’t change despite the Reds spending £250million this year.
Klopp, 51, has built his career on working out how to beat better teams with more resources, like when he led Dortmund to two Bundesliga title triumphs over Bayern Munich.
The German rejects talk that Liverpool have drawn level with Manchester City because they spent the most this summer and insists Pep Guardiola’s champions are still the Premier League’s best team. The Anfield men have won all four matches against City this year, including last month’s tour win in the US against a youthful Blues side, and Klopp wants to maintain the run.
He said: “If a team is better than yours then you have to work out how to be at their level and how to beat them.
“I have never wanted to have the best team. I have never wanted to be the best player or the best manager.
“What interests me is to beat the best. The best team today in England is Manchester City.
“That means the other teams are not the best.
“The goal then is to beat City as often as possible.”
Liverpool rivalled City as one of the most attractive sides last season and scored 135 goals as they reached the Champions League Final, where they went down to Real Madrid, and finished fourth in the league.
They began the new campaign with an emphatic 4-0 thumping of West Ham at home on Sunday and Klopp claims entertaining is key for him.
He said: “What is my style of play? Well, you know what, I have been a coach for 18 years and I haven’t even thought about this question despite being asked this a lot.
“I don’t really get what it means. I love the game, it’s as simple as that.
“It intrigues me 95 per cent of the time. When I watch a match I always see things that I like. If not, it would be a waste of time.
“Entertainment is the most important part of football. There are too many serious problems in the world to make football boring too. I want to see happiness in my players, passion in their eyes and a desire to fight.
“I want to see them bursting to surprise me – to look what’s on their right, to try to make a pass to their left, that sort of thing.”
Possession is not sacred to Klopp as it is to Guardiola or Unai Emery and he is more interested in what Liverpool do when they have the ball.
He said: “For me, it’s not the possession that counts but what you do with it.
“Against Burnley two years ago we had 82 per cent of possession and yet we still lost 2-0. They had two real opportunities and enjoyed our wastefulness.
“It’s the decision in possession that makes the difference, not necessarily the possession. Just as when you lose the ball, it’s your organisation that stops you being in danger.”
There’s too many serious problems in the world to make football boring too JURGEN KLOPP