WE’LL LEARN IT BY
Pain teaches Klopp stars vital lesson
JURGEN KLOPP believes Liverpool have learned the ultimate lesson from this disastrous season – how not to do things.
And the Kop boss says “the future” has already started for his team, with the remainder of a painful campaign used to drill home those lessons to ensure they hit the ground running next term.
Klopp’s blunt message – to his players as much as fans – was that the problems for his side stem from the sudden loss of their ability to counter-press.
He said: “So what we learned this season is a lot – how it doesn’t work out! We learned a lot which we didn’t want to learn.
“But after this season there is another one that is already in my mind. We have to build on what we do now and what we learn now.
“We have the chance to learn a few things we really can use.”
In Liverpool’s last two victories, the 7-0 against Manchester United, and Monday’s 6-1 thrashing of Leeds at Elland Road, the press worked. But in the 44 days without a win in between, it didn’t.
Klopp believes that is partly down to new forwards Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo having to learn the system in what has been a frenetic season.
Nunez has been missing from the starting line up in recent weeks, but Klopp said: “Darwin is a player with a different skillset to all our other players and that’s good.
‘‘He’s a real handful, he’s a machine and he’s scored already a decent number of goals. But yes, of course, he’s still adapting. It’s not helpful to go through a difficult debut season. How can a striker shine when the whole team is struggling?”
Gakpo has adapted quicker, and Klopp believes he is learning from the master of the counter-press, Roberto Firmino.
“Bobby in this role is an inspiration for pretty much every player in a similar position,’’ said Klopp.
“But Cody is a super-smart kid, a real team player and on top of that a really good player – and he can create his own way in this position.”
Klopp also believes Mo Salah deserves to be ranked among football’s true goalscoring legends.
The Liverpool forward stands just a goal away from equalling Anfield hero Robbie Fowler’s tally of 183 goals for the club, and moving to sixth place in the all-time list of legendary Kop strikers.
Salah this week overtook Fowler as the Premier League’s all-time top scorer of left-footed goals. His first strike at Leeds took him to 106, ahead of the ex-England striker and Robin van Persie.
And Klopp said: “Last week when I heard he had the most leftfooted goals in Premier League history, I have to say, that’s insane.
“When you see the names below. Fowler, Van Persie, Giggs, players like this, Premier League greats, absolutely. That’s massive.”
“Surpassing Robbie in another stat, I know that Mo likes these kind of things and will fill his tank, definitely, for the game.”