The Reds boss touched on a number of topics during a press conference ahead of Saturday's 3pm BST Anfield encounter.
Read on for a full transcript of the manager's pre-match media briefing from the AXA Training Centre.
On the issue of social media abuse…
What we are talking about now, about racism or social media, that's a problem. With social media in general we have obviously the problem that so far didn't get sorted, that people can hide behind whatever account and say what they want to say. That's a problem I think that really has to get sorted on this planet as quick as possible, as much as each kind of racism should be stopped. And if somebody uses social media, I don't do that really so for me the thing is… I cannot speak like this about racism, I am obviously not in the situation, I have no real idea about social media and the impact, to be 100 per cent honest. But I got criticised quite a lot in my life how you can imagine, not only recently but probably as well, and what I learned and the advice I could give: people you don't know, people who are not interested in you really, people who don't want to help you with criticism – which can help sometimes, of course – don't listen. Don't listen.
It's always that they need a forum for that, they need the situation that you take these kind of things for serious. That's how bullying works, that's how blaming works, that's how shouting works, that's how too-harsh criticism works. So, if you cut that side off then it's already a lot done and it cannot harm you, and that would be my advice to the players. And about all the rest, to be honest I don't understand enough about it and I don't understand enough about the real need of social media. I know there are some good things for sure, but a lot of things are just not important and I think for you as a person if you can cut them off then it's already a big step in the right direction.
On whether this is a week of pressure or a week of opportunity…
Both – there's no opportunity without pressure, because we are on the highest level of professional football obviously. We want to fight for the Champions League, so qualifying for next year or being part of it still this year. So, yes, it's an opportunity but there's pressure as well and we have to get ready for that, 100 per cent. A week ago we spoke about the wonderful game we played against Arsenal, and it was a wonderful game. It was a great game of football. A few days later we played pretty much the opposite of a great game at Real Madrid but this game shouldn't have any influence on the Aston Villa game tomorrow.
On wanting to put things right after the league defeat at Villa Park, or whether that was done in the FA Cup…
No, we played a different Aston Villa team obviously that night. No, it was not done. It is not really helpful but of course we have to put things right, that's clear. But we had to put things right a few days after the Aston Villa game, a week after the Aston Villa game, three weeks after the Aston Villa game. Things like this shouldn't have happened. It happened to us, it was a really strange game obviously. Yes, I have the game in my mind; which way I will use it, I'm not sure yet. But yeah, we have to put things right, for sure.
On the amount of time he spends reflecting on games and whether the defeat against Villa required more reflection…
You cannot put a game like this one aside immediately, that's not possible. We have a lot of games. I don't know if we played a few days after in the Champions League or not, I don't remember anymore, to be 100 per cent honest. We had to work with it. A lot of things were showed [to] us in that game which obviously were a problem – that day, some of the problems we had before, some of the problems we never had before. Of course, we work with it. That's the job, how you work with the results – the higher or the stranger the result is, that doesn't mean it gets more necessary to work with it, but in this case for sure we spoke about it quite frequently. It differs how long it takes for me to get over a game, or to get focused on the next game. Usually, especially after a win, my mindset is immediately at the next game. But we still have to reflect on the last game; not all of this information goes to the players but I watch the game back and then I know better what happened really in the game. If you win it or lose it, there's no difference between that, I just try to understand why things happen.
On his assessment of Villa this season and whether they are contenders for European football…
Of course they are. They are good, they are really good. Good set-up, made some good signings – already long ago, probably will not see them anymore as signings. Watkins, only to mention him; bringing Barkley in helped as well, all these kind of things. The rest of the team, not sure if Cash arrived this year probably, very good signing as well. Yeah, a really, really, really good side. And good sides in the Premier League are immediately in contention for European spots, and yes of course they are.
On how important it will be to start tomorrow's game well...
Important. You always want to start a game well but that doesn't happen all the time. That doesn't mean anything. If you don't get the momentum from the first second, you have to get it after 10 minutes or five minutes, these kind of things. So, yes, it's very important for sure. It's a while ago that we played a home game and, yes, the results were not great, you're right. So we have to show a reaction, definitely.
On whether his side will be thinking about their recent Anfield results...
I don't think we are too much influenced by the last home games. They were all different and stuff like this. No, I don't think we will think about [them], I will not think about it. It's just the next opportunity for us and it's a big one, it's a difficult one because the opponent is strong. So we have to be ready to play a good game. It's necessary that you can imagine playing a good game. If you can do that, then it's already a big step in the right direction and that's what we tried yesterday, what we try today. It's a short break between games but it's long enough to be ready.
On Naby Keita...
Naby showed it [what he can do], not sure very often to the full extent but he showed it. He played important games for us, great games for us, scored important goals for us, that's all the truth. But you ask the question probably because of the early substitution in the last game and that was just a decision I made in that moment. We had to sort the game for us and it was difficult to do that without making a change. After the game, yesterday we spoke and everything is OK. I explained the decision and he accepted it obviously. So we carry on.
On Villa striker Ollie Watkins, who scored a hat-trick in the October meeting...
First and foremost, in my memory a lot of players scored a hat-trick that night. It felt like everybody scored a hat-trick. But I think it was a very good moment for Aston Villa in general. I don't know exactly about the results before that, but after that they were flying for a while and that gave them a proper confidence boost. As a player, you need these kind of moments. Ollie is a really, really talented striker and obviously the manager knew him from before and it was a really good signing. The whole Brentford attacking line was exceptional in the Championship season before. So that suits really well, he's physically strong so he can keep the ball, he can jump high, he is very fast – that's a good package. Nobody has to remind me how good he is but how we always try to defend strikers, we try to avoid passes into their area. With him, that's not different than it is to others.