Everton 0-0 Liverpool: Jürgen Klopp's reaction
Jürgen Klopp promised Liverpool will keep pushing in the Premier League title race after a goalless draw with Everton on Sunday.
The Reds were held to a 0-0 by their neighbours at Goodison Park which saw them stay second in the table, one point behind Manchester City, with nine games left to play.
But Klopp struck a positive note in his post-match press conference, explaining his growing confidence that his players are ready to achieve their ambitions.
Read a summary of his verdict below…
On whether his message to the players is ‘not to panic’ in the title race…
I don’t think I have to give my players that advice because they know it already. Look, we are not little boys anymore, it’s not that we were completely surprised that we can play good football and we are in the very, very top part of the table. But if you are there you have to be ready for all the different things that happen. Sometimes you have a lead and everybody says, ‘that’s done’ 20 games before the end of the season. To stay calm in these situations was very easy. Then you have one point or two points more. It’s absolutely not important. At the beginning of March, who cares? The good thing is that we are in the battle, we are in the fight, that’s really good news. My feeling is more and more that we are really prepared for it because again it was a difficult game for us. Everybody has to come here and it’s probably always difficult but obviously against us it’s extremely difficult. We get a point; if somebody should have won the game, I think it was only one team. We had the chances. In a wild game we had chances, big chances and didn’t use them. It’s a point, let’s carry on.
On whether he expects more twists and turns in the last nine games…
Hopefully at least one! We have so many difficult games, we play Burnley next week at home – how can I sit here and think about the result we’ll have against them? It’s disrespectful and I’m not disrespectful. We have to play a lot of games. The only way you can win something is on one hand to stay calm but lively, critical but very confident. And believe in your chance. And I believe 100 per cent in our chance. Game by game by game my feeling gets better about the boys because they look really ready for it. We didn’t score, that happens. That can happen. It was a difficult game – the opponent, and the weather circumstances didn’t help for a good football game in general. It was just a fight and we were ready for that fight. Now we have a point more than before, all good.
On what makes him more confident in his players…
We are so stable and we are there in different situations. The boys always deliver – not brilliantly always but who is always brilliant? That’s not important. We know that we are good but, unfortunately, a lot of other teams in the league are really good as well. We just have to keep going, that’s what we will do. I’ve felt worse after a draw actually, because I’ve learned to respect results. If we would have scored one of these big ones – Fabinho, Mo twice, Joel, Virg, Sadio – then I feel completely different. But it’s still OK, let’s just carry on.
On whether Liverpool need to ‘take more risks’ in games like these…
Do you think we didn’t take enough risks today? Was there any draw where we didn’t try to win? Bring on an extra attacker and football changes? It is not like that. We are offensive enough, football doesn’t work like that. There are nine games to go and we don’t lose our nerves. City won yesterday in a game where they had 20 chances or so, but [they won] with one shot in the near corner which [Bournemouth goalkeeper, Artur] Boruc usually saves, but they won it. You need the right things in the right moment and that doesn’t only work if another striker [is on the pitch]. You cannot start with four or five strikers in a striker way with nothing else to do than to try to score. We are an offensive team and that’s absolutely OK – we take a risk, no doubt about it, but it is not like that. It’s not the moment where we say, ‘Come on now, throw everything in that direction.’ You cannot play in the Premier League like that; we play next week against Burnley and if we play only offensive, they [will] kill us on the counter-attack, 100 per cent. They don’t wait for us, they look where we have problems and then try to punish us there. Just always prepare for the game like you should prepare. We take all the risks, but you cannot take more than 100 per cent risk. It’s not about ‘going nuts’, it’s not about that.