The Reds were crowned world champions on Saturday after beating Flamengo 1-0 in the FIFA Club World Cup final in Qatar, adding to the haul of Champions League and UEFA Super Cup trophies already secured in 2019.
Having landed back on Merseyside on Sunday afternoon, their focus is now on the trip to King Power Stadium, where they’ll take on the second-placed Foxes, whom they hold a 10-point lead over at the Premier League summit.
And Klopp holds no concern his players will allow their successes to affect their domestic ambitions heading into the hectic festive period.
Read on for a summary of what the manager told reporters during a press conference on Christmas Eve at Melwood…
On when Takumi Minamino will join up with the Liverpool squad and when he will come into contention…
January 1. Look at our situation, I understand the question but how can you ask me in the moment when we have 14 adult players? I would be happy if he was half as good as he is, if he could be here now in this moment and could help us – and he could help us. That’s all good, we will see how quick it goes. The ways in which we play are not too different, there are a lot of things which he has learned already at Salzburg. That makes it so good for us, actually. We have a lot of patterns on the game which are different to what Salzburg are doing. So, offensively, when you speak about what he is used to, it is more or less defensively. He is an offensive player, so offensively how can we bring him into a situation that he feels completely comfortable and to use the things instinctively and not because we told him? That’s what we speak every year about when we say [about new signings], ‘Why he is not already in?’ all the time and stuff like this. There is no pressure, there is absolutely no pressure, when he is coming in January. This team is not struggling without him, so what we want is extra quality with him, different quality with him and a really, really good player. That’s what we got and from which point on we can use him, really we will see. From which point on we will see the 100 per cent Takumi, there is absolutely no pressure on the boy. So many good things which will help us, but from which moment on he can use all of them, we will see.
On how easy it will be to switch from winning the Club World Cup final to Premier League duties at Leicester…
Very easy, very easy. We have that constantly, we play constantly different competitions. It’s only the first few weeks when we don’t play Champions League – and in the Champions League, the Salzburg game was all or nothing. We had to go there and had to be completely focused on that specific situation in a game. A Premier League game, you want to win. A Champions League game, very often, especially in the later stages for us, we have to win games constantly because we bring ourselves into a situation where it is like this. We are used to that. This is now a Premier League game and it is not a problem to switch. The feeling after the game [against Flamengo] was exceptional, it was really, really great, but it was not kind of a wild party after it because we knew we play on Thursday again and recovery started a minute after the final whistle. The mood was exceptional, so we only take the positives of that, but we are completely and 100 per cent clear that Leicester will challenge us with all they have. They have their own targets, their own aims and goals, so we have to be ready for that. We are used to that, but we have to show it again on the pitch. It is not difficult to switch from one to the other.
On ensuring Liverpool don’t become complacent…
It is exactly like in normal life; if you have a little success and you get carried away by it, you will really quickly realise it was your last one. In whatever it is, if it is in school and being top in a test and you think, ‘OK, that’s it, from now on I got maths and everything about it’ you will realise on the next test, mathematics developed since you last looked in a book. That’s exactly what we have to do. We don’t get carried away by anything, absolutely not. We are completely focused on the next step, that’s all I can say about it. I was always like this, I never in my life wanted to have a party before there was a real reason for it. When there is a party with a real reason then I am in, 100 per cent, but before I don’t need it. I really don’t need it. It’s not like I have 20 per cent parties and stuff like this, have this little thing or that, I can easily wait for the proper one. No chance to get us in a mood where we forget the things we have to do. The next time we have to prove that is Leicester on Thursday, Boxing Day.
On whether the Christmas fixture list is good for spectators…
If people want it here, yes. In Germany it would probably cause a lot of problems on a private basis when people start watching football on December 25 and 26 because we are not used to it. None of us managers have a problem with Boxing Day [fixtures], none of us. But playing on the 26th and 28th is a crime. It is absolutely not OK and we still have it. This year we don’t have it, we have the 26th and the 29th and it is like a holiday. I understand all the others who are, not moaning, but who are telling that it just should not happen. Not for the spectacle, not for anything. It would not be a problem to play the 26th and 29th with more teams. There is no reason for giving teams less than 48 hours to play another Premier League game. That’s our life and obviously we can say whatever we want and nobody is really interested. It is every year the same for the coaches who are involved in that – the 26th and the 28th. Sports science doesn’t really give you something to deal with it because things are just like they are. The body needs a specific amount of time to go again, that’s how it is. It depends how long you have to do something, but it’s easy – it’s science. But we ignore that completely, we just look and think, ‘Oh my God, they look strange when they run again today’ and that’s the situation. We are not in that situation, but I understand each manager who mentions it from time to time pretty much always from December 23 or 24 when they realise it is coming up because it is just not OK. But, other people have to decide that.
On whether Manchester City and Liverpool’s Premier League form in recent years has raised the bar in terms of what it takes to win the title…
I think City moved the bar massively, massively. The kind of consistency they showed in the last three years probably is incredible and difficult to do, honestly. They became champions two years ago and I think last year we helped a lot, they helped us with trying to catch up with them. They did it in an incredible way, to be honest. It is not allowed to lose games, that’s how it is. It’s difficult, but winning the Premier League should be difficult. It is such a strong league with all the teams you see now – Watford looked like they were gone already, already relegated, but Nigel [Pearson] has come in, played here at Anfield a super game and then winning a week later and everybody down there is on their toes again. Now six or seven teams who will fight with all they have until the last matchday for every little point you can get, which makes these games difficult. You see, when it looked for a while like the top four were already kind of gone and it was clear who will play in the Champions League next year, together all of these teams [it changed] – seven or eight clubs will fight with all they have to be in the Champions League plus being in the Europa League, another four teams. That’s how the league is and you have to be ready every three days to kind of win a football game, that’s it. We know that so we don’t think about that as well. We don’t think about the last game we won, we only think about the next game we play. The next game is really the only way I understand and that’s what we try, with all the difficulties. Being prepared for the problems you can face, that’s pretty much the plan. Sometimes it works out, not always but sometimes, and that’s what we try this time again.
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