The manager on ambition, the top six and pressure
Jürgen Klopp offered his thoughts on the situation at the top of the Premier League at the halfway stage after Liverpool defeated Manchester City 1-0 on Saturday.
The Reds consolidated second place in the table courtesy of Georginio Wijnaldum’s early header at Anfield, extending their unbeaten home record to 24 games.
Klopp’s men again reduced the gap to leaders Chelsea to six points, with Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, City and Manchester United also in the chasing pack.
Here is what the manager told reporters…
On the current standings…
We are much better than last season. The position is completely different to when I came here. We are fine. We are where we are and if we could end there – cool. But if we are there five matchdays before the end and [the gap] is only a few points, then we will start really thinking something else. But not in the moment – I’m not like this. I have had much more difficult situations in my life than being second in a very, very difficult league. We are happy about our way; what the rest are doing, we have no influence on. We played them not too long ago and we’ll play them again. That’s all we can do.
On whether six teams are in the title race…
I don’t think about it. I was [a champion] twice and I started thinking about the opportunity really late. We have targets and we are really ambitious, you can’t imagine. You saw it [against City] again. But talking about something doesn’t bring you one point. We have to work. If we see the final line and we are in and around, the pressure will increase, but we had a game like this with big pressure on it. Not because we didn’t want to lose, but because we wanted to win it. That’s really pressure against such a good side. They are a really good side; I know there is a lot of criticism in and around, but they [play] some of the best football in the world and you have to defend it. We did it, that’s all. I’m happy about our situation in the table at the moment, but we don’t care who is around.
On aiming for better than a top-four finish…
If we have the possibility and we see the line, then we can talk about it. Until then, it’s not important. Do we have to do something similar to Chelsea? That would help! If we win 14 games in a row, we can look again at how the table looks then – but life is not like this. It will not go [forever] for Chelsea like this and of course they know it. But they are strong. I don’t think about their situation. In three or four weeks, when we play them, I’ll think a lot about them and not before.