Klopp on his last Merseyside derby as Liverpool look to build lead over City
Klopp on his last Merseyside derby as Liverpool look to build lead over City
Axa training centre, Liverpool, UK
Axa training centre, Liverpool, UK
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00:00Jürgen, obviously it's your last Merseyside derby,
00:11very important game in terms of the title race for yourselves,
00:15very important game in terms of the battle at the bottom of the table for Everton,
00:19so how do you sum up the importance of this game both to yourselves and Everton,
00:23and what's the Merseyside rivalry been like for you as a whole?
00:31So, yeah, super important for us, obviously, that's clear.
00:36I think with the last two results Everton pretty much sorted it.
00:41They're staying in the league, but that doesn't mean they don't have us
00:46and another home game, I think, on the weekend, three home games.
00:51So the idea from their point of view is obviously to win all three
00:55and then it should be sorted, definitely.
00:58Yeah, and for us it's clear, the situation is clear,
01:01I don't have to say that again and again and again.
01:04It's really important, like all the other games were as well,
01:07but, yeah, we know about the importance, definitely.
01:11Oh, bless you.
01:13When I was a player and I had to sneeze in the bus,
01:18my team-mates always wished me technique.
01:21They thought obviously I needed more than health.
01:24LAUGHTER
01:27Was he a fan?
01:29Yeah, yeah. I don't know what you need more than health.
01:37I just had an interview with your colleague from Sky,
01:41and he asked me a similar question.
01:43The thing is, I don't know exactly when my first Derby was,
01:48was it 2015 still?
01:502016.
01:52I was there for a while, but when you come here I really think it would not be honest
01:57if I would have said immediately,
01:59that's my game of the year and stuff like this.
02:02Because it wasn't, I knew how important it was to all the people,
02:05so I had it here but didn't feel it then.
02:08That's not a problem for coaching a team, but meanwhile I know it,
02:12and I feel it and everything, so it's absolutely clear.
02:15My feeling and my understanding developed obviously over the years,
02:20and rightly so.
02:22Yeah, always difficult games, especially there.
02:27At home it was... I'm not sure if comfort is the right word to use,
02:33but more at least.
02:35We have a pretty good record, only Carlo Ancelotti,
02:39who everybody knows now, he's a really good manager.
02:43We lost against Carlo.
02:45Besides that we had good results, good games,
02:48and now it's not too important what we had in the past,
02:51this is a super important game for us,
02:54so whatever we did in the past is not too important for this game,
02:58we just should give it a proper try there, and that's what we'll do.
03:01You say it's always difficult going there,
03:03you did have that 4-1 victory in December 2021.
03:06I think it was in 2021 that you beat them 4-1, I could assume.
03:11What's the biggest challenge you have to overcome when you're facing them?
03:14The intensity, it's the intensity.
03:17Obviously Goodison Park can create quite a good atmosphere as well,
03:21so that's how it is.
03:23I'm not sure that would be 100 per cent honest,
03:27but even for the players it's like that.
03:29If you play Liverpool, that's much more than just three points,
03:33and that's the way everybody sees it there.
03:37We will never get underestimated when we arrive there,
03:41whatever situation we are in, so that's the thing that makes it more difficult.
03:45But that makes it more difficult for them coming to us as well,
03:48so wherever they are, I don't think it ever happened
03:52that we looked like we were not ready for the game.
03:55They always looked ready for the game,
03:57and I remember the 4-1 but not the story of the game properly.
04:01So why we could win that day with such a result,
04:06I remember the 1-0, Sadio Mane late, late, late, late,
04:11after a roller from Daniel Sturridge.
04:15But as I said, yeah, there are some stories definitely,
04:20but they're not important for this game,
04:22so we just have to make sure that we are ready for this one.
04:25You were able to leave Salah, Kanate, Shabazz, Nunez and Callister
04:29out of the starting line-up against Fulham,
04:31how has that helped in terms of preparation,
04:33in terms of the freshness of the squad as well ahead of this game?
04:37Yeah, in this week, because the next one is around the corner immediately,
04:41away West Ham, and we had to do it,
04:46and we will see what we can do now for this game.
04:51Nothing definite yet, it's pretty early after the game,
04:56so this afternoon is the only real session we have,
05:00so we will make decisions and then we will line players up,
05:04and hopefully we will have, again, a lot of fresh legs on the page.
05:08I think Everton played on Sunday as well,
05:11the same rhythm, not all the time the same rhythm,
05:15I think their rhythm was quite frequently interrupted,
05:19but they had two or three weeks off, which is not great as well,
05:22I'm sure Jordan Ajax didn't like that as well,
05:24because that's strange as well, in the middle of the season,
05:26all of a sudden no game for three weeks.
05:29Yeah, but this is now an intense week for both teams, so we will see.
05:35In terms of team news, Jürgen, are there any fresh injury concerns at all going into this game?
05:40Unfortunately, yes.
05:44Diogo...
05:48Yeah.
05:50Scored a goal, fuzzled a bit, and now we found out it's a little bit more,
05:55so he will be out for...two weeks.
06:02Besides that, no.
06:04OK, and when you look at where we are now, five games to go in a season,
06:08the number of changes at times that have been forced,
06:10with injuries and international call-ups and so forth,
06:13and yet here you are, a trophy in the Cabinet,
06:15and very much in the thick of the title race.
06:18How proud are you of this score, and how does it relate to your managerial career
06:23and similar situations if you've even experienced them over the course of a season?
06:27I don't feel a second pride or something like that, I didn't think about it that way.
06:35And obviously the world is not like this, you cannot...
06:38I would love to go back to which point ever and think,
06:45where will we end up, what will exactly happen?
06:48Because how can you know? We are Liverpool, we are always ambitious, that's clear,
06:52we knew the last season was not great, so we had big ideas for the club,
06:56super important that we go back and qualify for the Champions League,
07:00it's the most important thing for the club, definitely, we all know that.
07:03So that was clear, we have to go for that and try to do that.
07:08It looks good, it's not set yet, but it looks good in that department.
07:12But, yeah, that's all.
07:16We are now here where we are and we want to win all the games,
07:20but that can tell you that wasn't the first match, it stayed the same.
07:25It's not that you think that far and think,
07:28OK, 38 matches, try to win them all, but you try to win them all, it just doesn't happen.
07:33You have to deal with all the little setbacks, if it's injuries, if it's results,
07:37stuff like this you have to...
07:39I wouldn't say it's straightforward, but until two weeks ago,
07:44everything was probably better than anybody would have expected,
07:48and you have this week where the performances were not as bad as the results felt afterwards.
07:54A little bit before that we had one of the best games we played against United,
08:00but we lost it in the FA Cup, which is really strange, but it was.
08:04We never dominated United as we did there, and didn't win it.
08:09That's where things started, why we don't score enough, stuff like this.
08:13If you look at our numbers, yes, there are two teams who scored more goals than us,
08:17but it's not like they scored 50 goals more than us.
08:20Everything I write is always about how you can get the right feeling again for the situation,
08:26for the next game and these kind of things, and we usually do that.
08:30So I'm really happy now with the response.
08:33It's always like that, you win at Atalanta, yes, it was not enough to go through,
08:38but we still won there.
08:40But it feels like that doesn't count.
08:42You won a football game, you wore your socks off for 100 minutes, you won it.
08:46Then you won 3-1 at Fulham, and I heard people saying,
08:50it was not really good or whatever, just Fulham was not good.
08:55I thought, my God, I wish you would play again, a Premier League game,
08:58where you just feel the intensity of these kind of challenges.
09:02So I am very positive, and not in a strange way,
09:08whether I want to see things brighter than they are,
09:13but I know this is the last part of the season,
09:16it's not about playing the freshest football of the whole year.
09:22It would be strange if that works out, with the schedule all the teams had.
09:26But you have to win games, and I think we know how to do that,
09:30but for that you have to overcome each opponent in a specific way.
09:35Now we have today, to make sure that everybody understands
09:39the way we want to try tomorrow.
09:42Hi, Jürgen. You talked about the Fulham game,
09:45you scored two goals from open play in that game,
09:47you hadn't done that for four games,
09:49so how good is that for confidence going forward in these last few games?
09:52The most beautiful goal was anyway the set-piece, so we took that as well.
09:56Now it's good, but again...
10:00Diogo's shot, the goalie has a hand on the ball,
10:04but cannot save it in the end, right?
10:07I think that's now clear, what is it, five centimetres?
10:11On the other direction, and the goalie saves it,
10:15and it's far post.
10:18That's how football is, you cannot change everything
10:21because of inches on the foot and stuff,
10:24you have to create, and we created a lot before.
10:27I think it's great if you score from open play,
10:30but actually in the end it's just important that you score.
10:34And that you play good, that's the idea,
10:36that you play as good as you can, that you create as much as you can,
10:39and that you come as often as possible in the positions to finish situations off.
10:43Sometimes you have to force that, sometimes you have to calm down to do that,
10:47and all these kind of things, that's all how it is.
10:50But in the end, it's just important that you find a bag of the net,
10:53we all know that.
10:55Again, the last two games we won out 4-1, got six points, only three in the league,
11:01and we have a capital with a decent count,
11:05so if somebody wants to see it like that, then we're in a good moment now,
11:10and we hope we can continue.
11:13It's up on the derby, nine of the last 11 games have been draws,
11:18how hard is it not to get caught up in the atmosphere,
11:21and how hard is it to play your own football in these types of games?
11:25Very different games, all nine games I would say, you cannot compare them,
11:29we came not even close, we missed massive chances there,
11:35so again, it's really about just playing football.
11:40But of course the atmosphere is special, absolutely, why wouldn't it?
11:45And how difficult is it not to get caught up?
11:50I wouldn't consider it as difficult, because if you play at Newcastle,
11:55good atmosphere, Old Trafford, good atmosphere,
11:58I didn't see these games as fast by the atmosphere.
12:02Here's Everton, a bit smaller stadium, a bit closer together.
12:06With all the derby fever in all minds, we have to be cool as well,
12:13that's an important part of preparing a game, and we will see how we did that.
12:22Jürgen, we've heard quite a lot from Trent in the media in recent weeks,
12:26just wondering, he's been talking about his role in the squad and how he's developed,
12:31I just wanted to get your thoughts on, compared to the Trent you came across all those years ago,
12:36maybe the aspect of him as a person that you think has grown and developed?
12:41Since I know him? Everything grew since I know him, he's become a real man.
12:50Yeah, fantastic player from the first day, outstanding talent
12:57turned into an outstanding, world-class football player.
13:01It's pretty rare that you are, as a manager as well,
13:05part of such a journey for such a long time.
13:09Trent never had a different manager in professional football,
13:15so it will be good for him to get new influences in the future,
13:20that's definitely clear, but I think we can be quite happy with the steps he made.
13:27When you see him now playing, you just see what a good player he is, it's crazy.
13:35I hope it was not misunderstood, because in the last game I said,
13:39after asking Conor Bradley, he played a few games and everybody thought,
13:43but Trent is Trent. I have to say, Conor is Conor.
13:47Conor was for a while the best player, he came on in a revelation,
13:51unbelievably good, incredibly good, honestly.
13:55Somewhere I saw the headline and I thought,
13:58maybe I said that but it's not what I wanted to say.
14:01But I told Conor already, which is much more important.
14:05Because he's really exceptional as well,
14:07so it's really nice to have these kind of players around.
14:10And with Trent, I don't think Trent made any of these interviews up,
14:14we usually get asked to do an interview and then we talk over it.
14:18We heard quite a lot from Trent, I don't think he had something to say,
14:22so it's just somebody asked him and he gave an answer.
14:25So, there's nothing bad to say about Trent and his development,
14:30he's one of these stories which not a lot of clubs can really write,
14:35but he is one of the people people will talk about in 20, 30, 40 years, 100 per cent,
14:42and that's really nice for a boy from West Derby,
14:45it's probably the best you can achieve in life.
14:51Just on Diogo's injury, is it a new one or is it a recurrence?
14:57He's been so lucky with injuries in the last two years.
15:03I can't really say a lot about it, to be honest.
15:09Before which game I didn't start, he got a knock, normal challenge,
15:15and fell a little bit at the hip, and that was then fine,
15:21because we didn't start him, brought him on, it was all right,
15:25we started the last game, it was obviously OK,
15:29and then with the finish, it's a small one, but we are late in the season,
15:33so obviously it's not a great moment for each injury, pretty much.
15:38It's not a big one, when I say it's two weeks, it's pretty much nothing,
15:44but enough to not be available, that's it.
15:48Any more for the breakers?
15:50Yeah, it starts the season, I think a lot of people expect Liverpool
15:55to be challenging on the top four, given what happened last season
15:58and the changes to the squad.
16:00With five games to go, you're still in the title race,
16:03do you feel like you have all the opportunities?
16:06At points and moments it's not as important as I think,
16:09because I don't limit ourselves with negative expectations.
16:13As I said, as a club, like Liverpool, before the season it's clear
16:17to get all the things going.
16:19We didn't qualify for the Champions League,
16:21I said that's financially a real problem for a football club of our magnitude,
16:24that's how it is.
16:26Number one, you have to make sure, and that's how you build a squad,
16:29that we can fight for the Champions League.
16:31In a league where you have six, seven teams...
16:34So obviously now Arsenal City, us, who is fourth,
16:40Aston Villa, so it was clear that they will be around, 100 per cent clear,
16:44Tottenham obviously made the next step, it was clear.
16:47And then not really involved, for whatever reason,
16:51you can only mention that before the season, United and Chelsea,
16:55but they are usually there as well, so we have four spots and you fight for that.
16:59That's a massive achievement already.
17:03I don't want to now, because it looks like we might qualify for the Champions League
17:07and we have to praise that, that's a job we have to do.
17:10And if you are there, and it's not a distance too far,
17:14and you want to fight for everything, that's where we are now,
17:17so it's not that I limit it.
17:19For us, in general, it's more a lesson for life,
17:22and I'm not sure it's even for football, it's only for football.
17:26You should never forget where you're coming from, just don't forget it.
17:30Because that means you can really enjoy the moment and go for it.
17:34Now it looks like in this one week, from that moment we had something to lose,
17:38and I might not be smart enough, I just don't understand that.
17:42Really, I don't get that. All of a sudden things change a little bit.
17:46And it's like, wow, I'm not sure if he can still do it, stuff like this.
17:51Why shouldn't we be able to do it now?
17:54Yes, we don't have it in our own hands, who had that in the past all the time?
17:58We have to be there if somebody struggles, it was always the case,
18:01we cannot become the favourite overnight and have something to lose,
18:05and be completely down, really down, if you don't do this or don't do that.
18:11But I cannot change that, obviously, that's how everybody wants to see it,
18:16or doesn't want to see it, it's just not the way I see it.
18:21So for me, we are where we should be, and now let's make the absolute best of it.
18:27That's my idea, and if that means in the end we will win the league,
18:31I would be obviously quite happy, and as long as there's a chance for that,
18:38I think we should give it a proper try.
18:43Welcome.