Klopp: Premier League tougher than Bundesliga
Jurgen Klopp believes winning the Premier League with Liverpool is a tougher mission than the Bundesliga triumphs he inspired at Borussia Dortmund.
He delivered the first of his two league titles in his third season at Dortmund. For Liverpool supporters embracing quirks of fate, Klopp is at the start of his third full season at Anfield.
There are similarities in how his team has evolved like his free-flowing Dortmund side. Of Liverpool’s past 35 victories, a staggering 22 have been achieved by a minimum three-goal margin.
Klopp is wary of comparisons. In German football, he displaced a single all-powerful opponent, Bayern Munich. In England, he says there are multiple threats and even Manchester City would not be able to replicate the six consecutive league titles recently achieved by Bayern.
“The Premier League [is harder] for sure,” said Klopp. “If you could beat Bayern, it was good because usually they had won all their other games. That will not happen here. Even City couldn’t do that last year.
“Here we have more teams like this. If City isn’t the No1, then there will be others going for it. But I’m not interested too much in the difficulties of our challenge. I’m working on the solutions.”
With Liverpool in such encouraging form, remaining consistent and injury-free is the focus. Klopp sees no signs of a dip in intensity from his squad.
“I never had the situation where I felt from one day to another a doubt about a player and whether he’s still on track,” he said. “Hopefully, we have a lot of difficult decisions to make with the squad and the lineup because of the number of players we have.”
A stronger Liverpool squad means even £40million signing Fabinho is yet to play. “It is different football to what he is used to, but he is improving already with big steps,” said Klopp.
Liverpool face Brighton today without Dejan Lovren, who is not expected back from a pelvis injury for three weeks. Loris Karius travels to Turkey this weekend to complete his move to Besiktas.