Klopp: As long as you wear the LFC shirt, only 100 per cent is allowed
Jürgen Klopp is convinced the relentless performance levels Liverpool have reached in the past two seasons can be retained by the newly-crowned Premier League champions’ hunger.
Since the beginning of the 2018-19 campaign, the Reds have lost just two out of 69 top-flight matches, racking up a remarkable 183 points in the process.
Such form resulted in the clinching of the title last week with seven games of the current term still to play - a new record - and brought a 30-year wait to be named domestic champions to an end.
Six days on from the coronation as title winners, Klopp spoke to the media as he prepares to lead Liverpool back into action, with a trip to Manchester City on Thursday night.
On fans ensuring they celebrate in a safe manner…
I hope so. I can say it again, it is a difficult time for all of us and I can really understand it that the emotions were all over the place. I get that, it’s not only about 30 years or whatever. Most of our supporters did what we should all have done, stayed at home, maybe in their back garden, front garden, in front of the door and had there a nice whatever they could do together with their families and maybe neighbours. The pictures we saw from the city centre were obviously not what we wanted to see. I’ve said that for the first time in my life because usually I love these pictures, but this is not the time for it. That’s what we have to make sure, that it will not happen again. I hope the people listen, honestly.
On what has allowed Liverpool to reach the levels of the past two seasons…
Sorry, I cannot speak about that because everybody would do it! It's just the boys, it's their focus, the concentration level, not thinking about the last game. It's the club, it's the pressure we get from the size of the club, it’s pretty much a mix of everything. It's the desire to do something special, it’s a desire to create your own history. That’s what we wanted and we feel in the middle of something, not at the end of something. I’ve said that for a couple of years and it’s true. We consider the end of something when we finish our career, that’s the end of this period of our lives. Until we finish our career, we have to give our everything. I’ll say it again, I like to say it - as long as you wear this shirt, less than 100 per cent is not allowed. It is not my phrase, it came from the All Blacks. I saw it 15 or 16 years ago in a nice documentary about the All Blacks and I kept that always for myself. That's for each LFC player the same, for me it’s the same; that's what we try to live and that's worked out sometimes. Unfortunately not all times because we are human beings.
On how Liverpool can ensure there is no let-up in their consistency…
I never stop wanting it. OK, I will say it like this, as long as we stay humble and greedy, we have a good chance to be a really uncomfortable opponent. When you are an uncomfortable opponent for each other team, you have a chance to win. And if you have a chance to win, you have to win. There are a lot of challenges - life is constantly a challenge – and our challenge now is being champions and playing seven games against teams who fight for everything. We can show we don’t run because we have to, we can show we run because we want to. Next season, you all will make stories of it – ‘the defending champion’ and all this kind of stuff. That’s why I say, we will not defend anything, we will attack. What we get for it, I have no idea, but nothing changed. I feel it now, it was one of the best moments in my life the second knowing we are champions of England, but it is not that I have it constantly in myself now. I don’t have to remind myself, but it’s not carrying me through the day. The last week after we had two days to make sure that we got it now, that we understood what happened around us, since then we have we prepared for Man City with full focus. That doesn’t mean we will beat them, it just means we will be prepared – and that’s what we will be for the next season as well. That’s how it works and I don’t know another way. If there is another way, then maybe people will tell me, but I have learned when you think you have reached the pinnacle, you are already on the way down. We don’t feel that, honestly. I can say 100 per cent, I don't feel finally satisfied. It is just another step, it’s a big one – unbelievably big - but not the only thing I want to talk about with the boys when I meet them in 20 years' time.
On how he believes Liverpool can improve…
We don’t have that long a time to talk about it [because] there are so many things! Where we can be more stable, where we can be more creative, where we can have solutions, where we can react quicker, where we can see more, where our awareness can be better - a lot of things we have to react on. On the development of other teams because we play one other team each three days or each week and each team has their own idea. How we react on that and how influential our game can be on them, we have to prepare that. When other teams change, we have to change. When other teams develop, we have to develop. The best way you develop is before the other teams develop, but it is difficult. The good thing is the consistency level we showed so far and now the challenge is to keep that. That would be already development to keep that over such a long period. There are a lot of things which we can do better, what we can do different, which is sometimes better as well, and what we can do even more consistent. That’s what we have to ask ourselves for. We are all very demanding with ourselves, so that will not be a problem. We are not tired. We are just in the middle of something and we want to go.