Klopp not giving up title chase
Juergen Klopp insisted Liverpool will not give up the chase of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League after bouncing back to winning ways to beat Brentford 3-0 on Sunday.
Fabinho, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Takumi Minamino scored the goals as the Reds coped with the absence of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, who are at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Victory lifts Klopp’s men up to second, within 11 points of the runaway leaders, but they also have a game in hand on City.
“We don’t have to convince anybody outside [the club]. People who are with us, they want to enjoy the ride,” said Klopp.
“This is not the situation to talk about a title race, 11 points with one game in hand. In a normal world [City win the league], but what is normal nowadays?”
Liverpool failed to take advantage of an extra man for over an hour as Thursday’s League semi-final, first leg against Arsenal ended 0-0, sparking fears of how they will cope for the rest of the month without two of their main sources of goals.
And Klopp was happy to quieten the “noise” over the absence of Salah and Mane.
“We can cut off the public noise. We knew against Arsenal what was not right,” added Klopp.
“That a couple of world class players aren’t here, we know that. We knew we didn’t have to make a lot of it.”
Klopp made just two changes from the Arsenal stalemate as Curtis Jones and Oxlade-Chamberlain were recalled to add extra creativity and dynamism to the midfield.
He was rewarded with a bright start as Diogo Jota headed over, Trent Alexander-Arnold flashed a shot just off target and Alvaro Fernandez made a brilliant save to deny Virgil van Dijk.
However, the Anfield crowd were growing restless until Brentford allowed Alexander-Arnold’s corner to bounce inside the area and Fabinho headed in at the back post.
“We were unbelievable in the first half against one of the best teams in the world,” said Brentford boss Thomas Frank, whose team drew 3-3 with the Reds in September.
“We kept them quiet. If we had gone to half-time 0-0 it would have been a different story, but if we want to get points here we can’t concede from set pieces.”
RESULTS
Liverpool 3 (Fabinho 44, Oxlade-Chamberlain 69, Minamino 77) Brentford 0; West Ham 2 (Bowen 34, Fornals 52) Leeds 3 (Harrison 10, 37, 60)