The Reds will contest their first game of the competition in Qatar on Wednesday evening when they take on Mexican side Monterrey in the semi-final at the Khalifa International Stadium.
Should they progress, either Flamengo or Al Hilal will await them in Saturday’s final.
It’s a competition Liverpool have never won before – and Klopp, therefore, appreciates the significance of bringing the trophy back to Merseyside.
However, the manager is equally under no illusion that anything other than his side being at their best will be required if they’re to do so.
Klopp held a press conference at the Khalifa International Stadium on Tuesday afternoon – read on for a summary of what he had to say…
On making a decision on team selection between tonight’s Carabao Cup tie with Aston Villa and the FIFA World Club Cup…
We had to make a decision like we did. We knew first that we would be invited to the Club World Cup before we knew how far we would go in the League Cup, so that’s how it is. For us, we are here: we don’t fly 3,000 miles, we don’t fly that distance, not to show up. We are here now, so our life is constantly dealing with difficult situations, finding solutions, being focused on the next game. Wherever it is, we don’t care. We are here, we play Monterrey tomorrow night, we have all the information we could get, we will be prepared and we will try to win the football game. We don’t see ourselves as favourites or whatever, we see ourselves as the challengers. It would be the first time for the club to win the Club World Cup. Is it the most important cup competition in the world? I don’t know. There are winners from all different competitions and continents. In Europe, obviously everybody thinks the Champions League is the biggest competition, but ask the guys who play in the CONCACAF, ask the other players in Asia or wherever, ask them. They all have their competitions. In Brazil, Flamengo celebrated the Copa Libertadores pretty intense how I saw. We are here to represent Liverpool and Europe, that’s what we do and we try that in the best way – like we do always. Hopefully you can see that tomorrow night.
On any concerns he has about the pitch at the Khalifa International Stadium…
The pitch, obviously we spoke to our groundsman yesterday who was here and he said it is in a really, really good condition. The training ground yesterday was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. My concern was from England; I have never been here in this country, especially never played football here, but obviously the pitches are brilliant and should not be a proper concern. When we arrived on Sunday night it was raining hard, which would be difficult for each pitch, but our groundsman said it is unbelievable, built on sand, which is good in this case, so it will suck all the water off. The pitch will hopefully be no concern.
On being described as the ‘best team in the world’ and as favourites for the tournament…
Look, it is not important if, and I not sure about [that], we were the “best football team in the world” in the summer, the last game or whatever – it is only important what we will be tomorrow night. Nobody cares about what happened three days ago, five days ago or six days ago. We need to show we are ready and that’s the only thing we are concerned about. Usually we don’t listen too much to public opinions, we try to be as serious as possible in these situations. We are more concerned before a game than really optimistic, I would say. I am an optimistic person, but it is not that I think before a game that we have it already won. We are ready to work hard tomorrow night, we will make sure we find a line-up to work hard. We respect the opponent a lot. We will make the analysis meeting when we go back to the hotel, then the boys will get all the information. After that we will have a training session and then tomorrow morning another one, and they are all full of work – that’s the reason we don’t have the public session. We are not here for showing up, we are here for football and will try to show that. It will be difficult.
On football in Qatar...
It's not too easy for us to watch too much Arabic football in Europe. But what I saw from Al Sadd was really good. They are playing for Xavi, one of the best football players in the world with a big career and now as a coach. You could see that in the game as well, it was really good football. I think they were ready and it was a tight game and it was really close and Al Sadd could have gone through. I didn’t see Flamengo yet, I had no time for doing that. We have a very famous Arabic player in our team in Mo Salah, I worked together with Mohamed Zidan, I played together together with Abderrahim Ouakili from Morocco – that’s my experience with these players. All [are] technically excellent and pretty quick most of them. Mahrez is one of the best players from this part of the world. Really a lot of good players, that's all. I have a lot of respect for them but we cannot compare the football because we don’t see it. We have to play our own games, that's one thing, and then the broadcast thing is about, for me, other English football or German football, that's pretty much what I can follow. But the respect couldn’t be bigger.
On Monterrey and Mexican football in general...
I visited your country in the summer, it was my first time in Mexico, it was brilliant. We saw them of course and we know about the coach came back and the situation in the league. Since then they didn't lose a game, so they are in a pretty good moment. They have a specific way of playing, good players, technically good players. It's just interesting, it's slightly different but, how you can imagine, I don't want to talk too much about tactical stuff because that's the thing we try either way to do or to avoid. I was impressed by the things I saw, it was really good football, I always imagined that. Everybody knew a lot of Mexican footballers played in Europe, not only Hugo Sanchez but maybe it started with him. They have brilliant footballers – all creative, technical-wise really good. The influence from the south, I would say, pretty emotional, all that stuff, all in involved, that’s how it should be. It will be really interesting. We are full of respect for Monterrey and looking forward to the game.