Klopp: Scoring goals will be fine - what we need is organisation
The possibility of a selection headache in attack this season is very much secondary in Jürgen Klopp's mind to instilling the right defensive organisation into his team.
Liverpool encountered few goalscoring issues during the periods in 2016-17 when injury or absence had not decreased the options the manager was able to choose from, ending the Premier League campaign with a tally of 78.
Two new faces have been added to the forward ranks so far this summer, in the form of Mohamed Salah and Dominic Solanke, while the welcome sight of Danny Ings and Sadio Mane returning to full training this week further swells the arsenal available to Klopp.
But when Liverpoolfc.com asked the boss how he might accommodate those riches into a cohesive unit on the pitch, during an interview on tour in Hong Kong, the nature of his response was as enlightening as it was comprehensive.
Read it in full below.
“I know people think about this, but in our ‘non-existing Plan B’ they always talk about offensive things but that makes not too much sense because we scored absolutely enough goals. If we concede less and score the same number, that would make the biggest difference.
“We have to be concentrated on this, we have to defend different situations better and not to think about how we could make the other teams crazy with all the qualities we have.
“With the quality and skills of the boys, you immediately have different options offensively – but to be organised is the main thing. If you have four or five very offensively orientated players then all good, that’s what everybody wants… if they are ready to defend.
“Otherwise you have no chance – you will have how we felt a few times, you can have 80 per cent possession but in the end if they have one situation then 1-0.
“We need to make sure that this one situation is not enough or these two situations are not enough against us. Being ready for these moments, that’s the next step we have to do in our progress – that we get more and more used to that we are a possession team and that we are really ready to defend these one, two or three situations the other teams have, which has hurt us so far a lot.
“I don’t want to open the case of set-pieces again because it was not set-pieces. It was second balls after set-pieces, after throw-ins and things like this. We are all sick of talking about it. We defend well but in these moments we have to come absolutely in the right mood. That’s the main target.
“Then, working with these players to create moments, that was never our problem no matter how often people want to say it, that we didn’t create some chances.
“We will score goals, 100 per cent. In the end, if we score one then that needs to be enough in a lot of games and gives you the freedom to improve more and more in different other offensive situations – but only if you are really organised.
“We know how to move, we know where we want to go, but to be organised – that’s unfortunately not like riding a bike. You can miss it.
“It’s about organisation. It’s about different things, but not about how I bring all my offensively skilled boys on the pitch. Who wants to be in this team needs to be ready for organisation, that’s 100 per cent – then we can play football, and very well by the way.”