KLOPP READY FOR A REPEAT
Anfield boss embraces title pressure
NO sooner had Liverpool lifted the trophy after racing to their first title in 30 years than questions were being asked.
Could they repeat the feat? Would Jurgen Klopp’s players still have the motivation after expending so much emotion and energy?
The German couldn’t help but smile at the doubters ahead of today’s opening match of the new season against newcomers Leeds United.
If defending the title is a problem, he says, it’s the best one Liverpool can have.
Manchester City have been made slight favourites and Klopp knows it will not be easy to maintain the standards which have seen his side record 99 and 97 points in the last two seasons — losing just four times — but that is what he expects.
‘Winning the league last year is the best problem you can have,’ he said. ‘If it’s a problem, then I don’t know it, but everybody else is giving me a feeling that it should be a problem.
‘Everybody wants to become champions, and that’s not news to me as I knew it before.
‘It’s all about how we can put these intense performances on the pitch again and again.
‘The Premier League is the strongest league in the world, and that means we have more competitors than we really need.’
There has been some criticism that the only business Liverpool have done so far is the £11.7million signing of Kostas Tsimikas as cover for Andy Robertson, having sold defender Dejan Lovren to Zenit St Petersburg and allowed midfielder Adam Lallana to leave.
Barcelona are also circling after expressing interest in Georginio Wijnaldum. Klopp insists the situation with the midfielder is not a concern.
‘Absolutely fine about the future as far as we are involved with that,’ he said of reports that Ronald Koeman wants to be reunited with the Dutch international at the Nou Camp. ‘I cannot speak about the future in a few years but it is all fine. It’s all good for the moment.’
Fans have been clamouring for the signing of Bayern Munich’s Thiago Alcantara, a player Klopp likes, but that will not happen unless money is raised from somewhere else or Wijnaldum leaves for Spain.
‘If I could invent a word now that would end speculation, I could become really rich,’ said Klopp. ‘I can’t end speculation as long as the transfer window is open, that’s all I can say. Did I mention that Thiago is a really good player? Long ago. It’s nice we are linked with him but that’s pretty much all, really.’
Liverpool face an intriguing test at home to Marcelo Bielsa’s Championship winners today, back in the top flight after 16 years. Bielsa has inspired a number of the world’s top coaches but what Klopp recalls is the Argentinian’s famed work ethic.
‘I admire him but I was never close enough to him to really follow him,’ he said. ‘Maybe the hardest working of all us, I don’t think we can compete with him in that area.
‘When I think of the analysis he presented around the Derby game (Leeds were fined £200,000 for spying on Derby’s training session in 2019)... that was funny as well.
‘We didn’t see any suspicious people around our training ground this week so it’s all fine.’