The Irish Mail on Sunday

Lallana: We have been too complacent

Adam Lallana is interviewe­d in Bring the Noise on the arrival of Jurgen Klopp at the club and gives his insight into why the team perform so well in major games but struggle against less-fashionabl­e clubs.

- By Raphael Honigstein

ADAM LALLANA blames Liverpool’s troubles in nominally easier games on the subconscio­us belief that 80 or 90 per cent of effort will suffice.

‘It’s a mentality thing,’ he says. ‘When your mentality is right, your tactical play is going to be better. The manager knows that and it’s not something you can change overnight. But he is emphasisin­g that we need to get that right. As soon as we get it right, we can go on and achieve something really special.’

Peter Krawietz, Klopp’s assistant coach, says: ‘If Adam says that, we’re one step closer to illuminati­on. I think it’s only human to think [about smaller games] that way. Even for journalist­s, I guess.

‘You go to Aston Villa v Burnley, you think, “OK, let’s check it out”. But for Chelsea v Spurs, your pencil is sharpened. Neverthele­ss, it must be forbidden to think that way as a player. We fight against that. We reiterate that the same number of points is at stake, regardless of the opposition.

‘What we want is a consistent­ly high energy. Having the ball and dominating the rhythm of the game comes with a certain level of intensity. That’s just how it is.’ ‘A LOT of the time, mainly when he’s angry, Klopp says: “I f ****** wish I could speak German to you,” ’ says Lallana also reveals Klopp often wants to speak German. Lallana, laughing. ‘His English is tremendous actually. But it does frustrate him at times. He can give you a b ********* , he can really praise you. The hugs, they are genuine as well. He will tell you when he is happy with you. He will tell you when he is not happy with you. He is just genuine, straight up.

‘He can’t hide his emotions, can he? He says he can be your friend but not your best friend, because he has those difficult conversati­ons with you at times. He would sometimes get frustrated, telling us that we don’t believe how good we are.’

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