EDWARDS: GET IT OVER WITH
KLOPP’S CONFIDENCE IN A STRONG RUN-IN
JURGEN Klopp has tried to lift his battered Liverpool players, telling them: “We can still make it an outstanding season.”
Liverpool are wounded and have seen their European and FA Cup hopes ended and their Premier League chances suffer a major blow.
They face Fulham in a massive encounter at Craven Cottage tomorrow — and Klopp says they must not dwell on these disappointments.
“What should influence us more: the last week or the chance in front of us?” said Liverpool boss
Klopp.
“I’m fully of the opinion that there’s a next chance for us and we can turn things around absolutely in all departments.
“We can still make it an outstanding season.
“It will be a good season, but of course how you look at it is massively influenced by the last part of it.
Believe
“The boys know I don’t tell them things I don’t believe in and I’m 100 per cent sure we can win all of the games we have from now.”
Klopp knows setbacks are part of football and he wants his players to roll with the punches to get their league campaign back on track as he counts down his final games at Anfield.
Liverpool have slipped from
“There’s no season I can remember where there were no moments I thought ‘Ah, we should have won that, we should have done that’,” he said.
Deal
“It’s part of life constantly that you have to deal with them.
“It’s never about how many punches you get, it’s always how you deal with them if you allow them.
“That’s how we have to deal with the situation and that’s what we’ve always done.
“If you want to be champion in the Premier League, you have to be close to perfect and if you’re not perfect, you have to deal with the setbacks in the best possible way.
“We had a setback week with three games we didn’t like too much, the results especially, before we beat Atalanta and now we have to start turning it around.”
Liverpool took the first steps in their recovery in Bergamo and in the first half they rediscovered their old intensity before they tired.
Trent Alexander-Arnold was outstanding in his first start since February 10 and says the Reds must find their cutting edge at Fulham after managing just one Mohamed Salah (inset) penalty in their last three games.
Liverpool have little time to catch their breath and in seven days they must face Fulham, Everton and West Ham — all away.
“We need to take our chances when we get them,” said Alexander-Arnold, who was forced off against Atalanta because he was knackered.
“It’s been difficult to take those and we’ve made the result too hard.
Difficult
“On Sunday, we’ve got a huge game we need to go and win.
“We’ve got a very difficult week ahead of us.
“Three away games, we need to learn from the last week as quickly as possible.”
LUTON boss Rob
Edwards fears that clubs not knowing their fate beyond the last day would be “unbearable”.
And he has urged football authorities to act quickly over points deductions to avoid ‘madness’ at the end of the season.
The Hatters are in a battle for survival with Everton and Nottingham Forest, who have both had points docked for breaking financial rules.
Everton have been hit twice – first with a 10-point cut, reduced to six on appeal, and then a two-point punishment, which they are also appealing.
Forest are appealing against a four-point deduction, with their case likely to be heard next week.
Everton’s second punishment was not announced until last week and there are fears that the appeal decision will not be known until after the last ball of the Premier League season is kicked on Sunday May 19.
The League said this week that an ‘expedited’ process would be used to speed up Everton’s case, but Edwards said: “I don’t think any of the managers or anybody connected to the clubs who are in this battle now would be any different from me.
“We’re all of the opinion that we’d like to know where we stand going into the final few games.
“I don’t think anyone would say, ‘I quite fancy having another five days of waiting at the end of the season to see where our fate lies’.
“It would be quite a mad situation. I don’t know what I’d be doing in those five days – it would be unbearable.
Mindset
“All of us would be of the mindset that we want this situation dealt with as quickly as possible.”
First, Luton must ensure that they stay in with a shout of staying up by taking points off Brentford today.
The Hatters will go again with a patched-up defence to try and keep out a Bees attack led by Ivan Toney – a ‘brilliant’ player, according to Edwards.
The Luton gaffer said: “At Man City last week, against Erling Haaland, our back four was a centre-back, a full-back and two wingers. I’m still laughing about it now – otherwise I’d cry.
“The lads have given everything. I’ve asked a lot of our boys in recent weeks and one or two have suffered because of that. But if we hadn’t gone that way, we wouldn’t be in this position now points wise and we wouldn’t be competing.”
TODAY, 3PM