Klopp on finding solutions, Williams progress and West Ham analysis
Jürgen Klopp is ready to solve the latest challenge Liverpool face as they welcome West Ham United to Anfield on Saturday.
The Reds will be without Fabinho, who himself recently moved into central defence following the injury to Virgil van Dijk, when they take on the Hammers in the Premier League.
Academy graduate Rhys Williams replaced Fabinho during Tuesday night’s 2-0 win over FC Midtjylland and is among the candidates to provide a solution for the boss in the backline this weekend.
At his pre-match press conference, Klopp discussed his approach to handling such circumstances, the role of Vitor Matos in Williams’ elevation to the first team, and what he expects from David Moyes’ side.
Read a summary below…
On whether he enjoys the challenge of finding solutions to problems…
Maybe enjoying is not exactly the right word, but I realised long ago that life is a challenge and this is a challenge, 100 per cent. But, yes, in the moment – how I understand life always – if you overcame the first impression of the incident then it’s all about solutions. Problems are only there to find solutions for. And yes, the solutions I’m excited about them, that’s true. I see the challenge in the situation, yes. I see there’s an opportunity, yes. That’s all true. But still we play football games every three days, so this will stay a challenge. But I’m fine, we are fine, we deal with the situation and we will make the best of it, that’s the plan.
On Williams’ progress over the last few years and whether he is ready to make a Premier League debut on Saturday…
I cannot say too much about his progress in the last few years, to be 100 per cent honest. But I can say a lot about his progress in the last few weeks or months since he was with us [the first team]. This is pretty exceptional, but he was already a really good kid when he arrived here. The situation was one of the benefits of having Vitor Matos in the coaching staff because he made us aware of him and said, ‘He is really good, take him in training.’ So that’s what we did and he looked good. But we still have Billy [Koumetio] the kid and we have Nat Phillips as well, so these are the boys. Billy was not available for some reasons in the last 10 or 12 days but he’s now back and they train all with us, they are all with us and now we have to make decisions.
On the difficulty of preparing tactical changes when there is less time on the training pitch this season…
Yes, it’s more difficult, how you can imagine. Nearly impossible but it’s possible and that’s why we try it and will carry on trying it – maybe not exactly that system [used against Sheffield United last weekend] but other systems. We have to react always. My job is to use the squad in the best possible way and that’s what I try to do obviously. For the Sheffield United game it meant we changed slightly, so that’s obviously possible that we do similar things at the weekend. It depends massively who we have available and what would make sense against a specific opponent on the weekend. It’s a challenge but that’s how it is and we don’t complain about it or whatever, it’s just the situation. Yes, the less time you have available, the more difficult it is.
On Michail Antonio’s availability for West Ham and the other threats the visitors will have at Anfield…
Antonio obviously plays a sensational season so far, he’s in a really good shape. If David [Moyes] would miss him or cannot use him, of course that doesn’t help. It’s like everybody when you have a player who plays usually all the time and you cannot use him, that doesn’t help. But even when you maybe don’t know him that good in England, but [Sebastien] Haller – I know him from Germany and he played an incredible season or two seasons at Frankfurt and was an incredible striker. A different type but good footballer, quick enough as well, and physically, first of all, similarly strong, if not stronger, brilliant in the air and all these kind of things. He could be, but they have different options obviously because West Ham did some smart business in the last one-and-a-half years or so, and even boys who were longer there and were injured are now back. That all looks like it’s now starting to click. David is doing a really good job and that’s a proper fighting unit we will face. And one player less will not make it easier for us, not at all. It will be just a different challenge, not exactly the same maybe. Actually in the moment, I expect him to play; if not, then we deal with a different situation.