WE WANT THE WHOLE WORLD IN OUR HANDS
Europe might question merit of this trophy but for Klopp it’s the big one
JURGEN KLOPP never doubted the mentality of his Liverpool players.
But he admits he was reassured he did not need to tell them just how important the Club World Cup is for a team which has won every other major honour.
Liverpool have won the European Cup six times in their glorious history but, incredibly, have never won the Club World Cup, while their Brazilian opponents Flamengo view it as the biggest trophy in club football.
Klopp could see the potential for a fixture backlog several months ago in the middle of a Premier League title race and the Champions League as he contemplated spending a week in the Middle East just before Christmas. But he knew when he canvassed the opinions of his players that they would give this competition their all.
The German said: “We spoke about it a few months ago and I asked them how they wanted to play it. “They said ‘we go!’
“I never had to
The boys were completely on fire from the first moment they heard about it. They want to win everything they can
convince my team to come and play for this competition. They were completely on fire from the first moment when they heard about it.
“The boys are 100 per cent clear, they didn’t need Ali (goalkeeper Alisson) telling them, or Bobby (Roberto Firmino, below) telling them, or Fabinho telling them about the importance for them, they are footballers, they are sportsmen, and they want to win everything they can.
“We are playing against a side from a country and continent where this competition means everything to everyone yet in England we have to explain why we come here.
“That’s how Europe looks at the world, that we are the centre of attention.
“Since we’ve been here we have come to respect it more and more because you get a feeling for it. You watch the games
and it is all or nothing with everyone fighting for everything. We are here and we want to win it but there is another team and they want to win it as well. That’s what we do.”
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher described losing the Club World Cup final to Sao Paolo in 2005 as one of the biggest regrets of his career. That’s why centre-half Virgil van Dijk and fullbacks Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson (all left) will be fully committed today.
The last time Liverpool played Flamengo in the final was 1981 when a team including Kenny Dalglish, Mark Lawrenson and Graeme Souness lost 3-0 after a chaotic journey to the final in Tokyo. They did not even bother entering in 1977 and 1978.
Klopp admits that he grew up in Germany not taking the Club World Cup particularly seriously but his attitude has changed and now he is desperate to add another piece of silverware to the Anfield trophy cabinet - even if he is not sure what the cup looks like.
Klopp added: “I don’t know exactly know how the trophy looks but I didn’t know that about the Super Cup either.
“Before the game people said, ‘Do you really need it?’ Then you play it and you win it and it feels incredible. It was really a big one.
“As a kid in Germany, I was not aware of it (Club World Cup)
“You want to be the domestic champion, win a domestic cup, and then a European trophy. That’s where football ends usually for the team. But you do not win something so people will say ‘oh, you won it.’ You win it to celebrate it. Our fans will celebrate like crazy, and other people will say ‘who cares?’ But I could not care less. I do not worry what it means to others. Win because you are there. Let’s give it a proper try.”