Klopp: PSG have not faced anyone like us this season
Liverpool ‘not afraid’ of French club’s superstars Manager says players are unaffected by final loss
Jurgen Klopp has issued a provocative warning to Paris St-germain’s gilded superstars ahead of tonight’s glitzy Champions League opener: “You are good, but you have not played anyone like us yet.”
There will be no red-carpet treatment for Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani, with Klopp adamant he would not swap the £421 million attacking trio for his own. Instead, Klopp welcomes compatriot Thomas Tuchel with a pointed reminder that Anfield on a European night is a challenge incomparable to the yearly procession to the French title.
“I can’t prepare a team to face Paris St-germain without showing them the strengths of Paris,” said the Liverpool manager. “But, on the other side, it’s quite difficult to make a preparation because they have never played against us. Us playing against them will look different to what they have faced so far this season – that’s the truth.
“I watched Paris. I watched them last year and I watched them this year, and it is impressive.
“They are good, really good, not only for Paris, but Kylian Mbappe, come on, what a World Cup he played. And Neymar we all know about his quality. [Angel] Di Maria, maybe he didn’t have the best time at Man United but all the rest of his career was outstanding. Cavani, a proper goal-getter.
“In the preparation, I have to make sure we know about it. I know we are quite good, and respecting them without getting afraid of them – but respecting them we have to.
“Do I have to compare them? I love my players, all of them, so I don’t want to change anything. I wouldn’t change them.”
Liverpool’s response to their last European appearance – the fateful night of the Champions League final defeat by Real Madrid – has been impressive on and off the field.
Klopp says his players feel invigorated rather than wounded by their European experiences.
“No damage. No. Absolutely not,” said Klopp. “It is a different club to the club I joined. We got a lot of respect because of the way we played last season.
“Everyone who saw the final saw that we could have won it against a side in a completely different moment. They see the games we played. They saw [Manchester] City. They saw Rome. They saw Porto. Going to the final needed 10 or 12 outstanding performances.
“They saw so many games which we played in a really good way. There was a lot of respect. It is important for the club and the players. The players we spoke to in the summer were different talks to those I had the previous year or before.
“We are in the place we want to be without being satisfied with anything. We are a challenger again for pretty much everything, especially in each game. I don’t think there is any game in the world where you would say beforehand,
‘No chance Liverpool,’ which is good. That doesn’t mean we will win.
But that means it is clear that we have a chance if we play our best.”
As captain Jordan Henderson admitted, the club have not always responded this well to modern setbacks. Think of Brendan Rodgers being unable to maintain momentum after narrowly losing the Premier
League in 2014.
“In terms of the final, you just have to use that as motivation to get back there as quickly as possible and put it right, go one step further,” said Henderson.
“It will not have a negative effect on the team. You have to move on pretty fast.
No one likes a loser’s medal but, at the same, the experience was good for the team and we can use it in this campaign. We strengthened the squad brilliantly with fresh faces to keep us improving.”
Klopp had a more col- ourful way of describing how to replicate the journey to a European final.
“The best way is when you are experienced you use your new knowledge and start again like a virgin,” he said. “It is a nice experience, it is a nice memory, but at the end we have to start new – using the experience but not relying on it. We are in a really good moment, but we are not a little bit satisfied. There is nothing in us that thinks that’s it. It’s good but we want it better for the club.”
For Tuchel, a return to Anfield revives unhappy memories of his visit with Borussia Dortmund in 2016, when a 4-2 aggregate lead after 52 minutes ended in 5-4 defeat in the Europa League quarter-final.
“I was just asked if I still think of it. With the years going by I am grateful for the experience,” he said. “You can never be comfortable at Anfield and think for one minute you have it under control. There is no moment of calmness and quietness here. You can never rest.”
Asked if PSG’S Ligue 1 success is such a formality that it does not adequately prepare his side for elite European opponents, Tuchel said: “Sometimes I feel sorry for my team. I know the effort we put in. We win and win not because it is easy, but because these guys show the hunger. “Nobody has told me I have to win [the Champions League]. “If they did I would not have signed the contract.”