LIVERPOOL UNDER PRESSURE TO DELIVER AFTER BIG SPEND
Manager feels it’s time to deliver goods after stellar Champions League run
Coach Jurgen Klopp admits the heat is on in his hunt for silverware for the north England club after spending R2.9-billion on new players.
Jurgen Klopp has admitted the pressure is on Liverpool this season finally to end their painful wait for silverware. Klopp has significantly rebuilt his squad and spent more than £170-million (R2.9-billion) in an effort to challenge defending champions Manchester City for the Premier League title.
Liverpool reached last season’s Champions League final, losing to Real Madrid, but Klopp knows he will be expected to meet rising expectations and repay the financial backing from owners FSG.
The £65-million (R1.1-billion) record capture of Brazil goalkeeper Alisson appears crucial, with many supporters regarding the absence of a quality number one as having damaged Liverpool’s hopes of success.
But the signings of Naby Keita and Fabinho, in particular, to join the league’s player of the year Mohamed Salah and £75million (R1.3-billion) defender Virgil van Dijk, have generated a tidal wave of optimism ahead of the new campaign.
Kenny Dalglish was the last Liverpool manager to win a trophy, with the League Cup victory over Cardiff City in 2012, and Klopp has acknowledged he must start making history with the club.
When asked if Liverpool have to win something this season, he said: “You are right and people will say that. It would be the next step.
“I know about the expectations and that is completely normal. We expect more from ourselves. We will go again for the championship and each kind of cup but that does not mean I can sit here and we will get it. We have the highest ambitions.
“Other teams will do business as well. They will not be weaker than last year. City brought in [Riyad] Mahrez. I did not hear that they lost one player so far, so it means the quality of last year plus Mahrez.
“Manchester United will go for it too. First of all we have to play the football that gives us an opportunity to win something. I am confident we can build on last season.”
Klopp is preparing for his third season at Anfield and is still waiting for a number of World Cup stars to return. Though Salah and Sadio Mane have joined the Liverpool squad in the United States, Klopp is without a number of key players including Jordan Henderson, Roberto Firmino, Dejan Lovren and Trent AlexanderArnold.
New £13-million (R228-million) signing Xherdan Shaqiri is set to link up with the squad in the next 24 hours while Alisson joins the squad at the training camp in France next week.
With the club’s first competitive fixture against West Ham United on August 12, Klopp insisted Liverpool’s start is crucial.
“It’s not like the good old times when you had your squad for six weeks in pre-season and spent one week team-building by going to a forest in Sweden with nothing to eat, like I did when I was young,” he said.
“That’s not possible. The first few games are absolutely important. We have West Ham and Crystal Palace and that’s tough enough. I don’t know how many players West Ham had at the World Cup but they are signing player after player and they will be a new team.
“I want to have the best start ever but we all know that something can happen and then everything is questioned in a second.”
Klopp, meanwhile, is facing an anxious wait over the fitness of Joel Matip, who limped off against Borussia Dortmund on Sunday. —