City made Klopp feel clueless

JURGEN KLOPP has revealed he had no clue how to prepare his team to meet Manchester City just days after being confirmed as Premier League champions.

Liverpool were thumped 4-0 at The Etihad in July after Pep Guardiola’s stars had given Klopp’s men a guard of honour for their title triumph.

“We learned that if you are not 100 per cent focused on the game against City, you will lose — big,” said Klopp.

“It was the first time we won the Premier League in England so I had no idea how to prepare the next game.

“I didn’t want to overdo it: ‘boys, forget what happened three days ago… now it is City and now we can show the whole world blah blah blah.’

“I didn’t do that and I’m not sure if it was right or wrong. I know my boys wanted to win the game — but we were not as focused as we are usually in these games.”

With Virgil Van Dijk missing, Klopp’s defence will face a searching test against City after already conceding 15 League goals in seven games this season — their worst record since 1964.

But Klopp says they haven’t gone back to basics — because they don’t need to.

“Defending usually was not our problem because we defend as a unit,” he said. “But it was not after conceding seven to Aston Villa. We tried to sort that without overdoing it. We just adjusted things that were good before.”