Jürgen Klopp on the run-in: 'We only think about ourselves'

Jürgen Klopp will be telling his Liverpool players to repeat the performance at West Bromwich Albion and ignore what their top-four rivals are doing during the run-in.

A hard-fought 1-0 win at The Hawthorns, courtesy of Roberto Firmino’s first-half header, lifted the Reds back up to third place in the Premier League table with five games remaining.

Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur hold a healthy advantage ahead of Klopp’s side, while Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Everton are the teams trying to close the gap.

Each of those clubs, aside from the Blues, have games in hand on Liverpool, who nevertheless know that the battle for Champions League qualification remains in their own control.

That is why Klopp intends to ignore external events in favour of ensuring the Reds keep up the standards that secured a crucial result over the Baggies at the weekend.

“We have to carry on,” he told Liverpoolfc.com after the final whistle on Sunday. “And that’s no problem – it’s actually the only thing we think about.

“That everybody is asking me about [the situation] is no problem, I don’t mind. Because the league is like the league is, [the other teams] have three, or maybe next week after the [FA Cup] semi-finals, four games less.

“If Manchester United go to the [Europa League semi-final], they have to play two [more] games. If they go to the Europa League final, it could be really close for them to find the right days to play.

“But that’s nothing we have influence on. We don’t play them anymore, so that means we have to do our job as good as possible. And it couldn’t have been better [against West Brom].”

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