'Am I concerned about losing momentum? Absolutely not'
Jürgen Klopp has no concerns that the international break may have checked Liverpool's momentum, with the manager preferring to focus on his side's preparations for Saturday's trip to Southampton.
A tally of 22 points from their last eight Premier League outings, including a 6-1 rout of Watford at Anfield immediately before the enforced pause, means the Reds head to St Mary’s top of the table.
That resounding victory over the Hornets was preceded by an impressive 4-2 win at Crystal Palace, but many members of Klopp’s squad have been away with their countries over the last fortnight.
That led to the boss being asked about whether he is fearful of a loss of impetus after a series of irresistible attacking displays, during his pre-Southampton press conference this morning.
“Absolutely not,” Klopp replied.
“That’s not because I don’t think about momentum - momentum is something you can talk about after the game and then we can say we have to use the momentum again, but nobody knows how it works.
LFCTV GO: Watch Klopp's pre-Southampton press conference
“What’s momentum before the game? Let’s try to do our best, let’s try to play football, let’s try to do what we spoke about, let’s try to use what we saw when we prepared for the game and all that stuff.
“The momentum is not something you have to talk about before the game so I don’t think about it.
“It’s the same situation for all the other teams too. I only try to describe our situation because you asked about difficulties ahead of this game, but it’s for all the teams the same, even Southampton - [Jose] Fonte played for Portugal, I don’t know where, they have a lot of players who were on the road too so it’s no advantage, no disadvantage, it’s like it is.
“After international breaks it’s a special situation. Usually you have the players here, you can see how they feel, but even then they can get injuries in training, of course. But it feels different when you see them playing and cannot see them playing.
“For me, it’s not possible to watch Brazilian games live at 1.30 at night or whatever - when you wake up in the morning it’s different. The first thing you look is on the smartphone [to see] if somebody wrote you anything, and when there’s no message, that’s the first good sign.”
Liverpool have lost just once in their 14 outings in all competitions this season, and Klopp was asked for his take on the reasons for his team’s excellent form.
“The skills of the players, the training we did together, the attitude of the players, the decisions they made on the pitch,” he said.
“For sure we are confident too from the coaching side - the things we do in training, they are helpful and that’s why we do it. That you can see it on the pitch, that’s the players’ job and they did it brilliantly until now, but that’s all.”