Jürgen Klopp Q&A: Social media boycott, Old Trafford test and confidence
Jürgen Klopp addressed a wide range of topics during Friday's pre-match press conference.
Read on for a transcript of what the boss discussed with the media ahead of Liverpool's trip to Manchester United.
On football's boycott of social media and the impact online hate and abuse has on the football club and the individuals targeted...
So, I think I said it before, I'm not the most experienced person with social media things. But, of course, we had cases where players faced some weird things on social media. Yes, I had some talks as well with the boys then, didn't happen too often actually because we have a pretty good set-up for that, we have smarter people than me, people who know better about the issues could show up and all these kind of things. The world of a football player is anyway a pretty public world and you can ask players from the past what kind of life they had around football games and how much joy they had around that, that has all disappeared, that cannot happen anymore for a lot of reasons – and one of them is social media. But anyway it's used by a lot of people on this planet, so it's a very important thing to do and I support, obviously, the boycott, the club supports the boycott. I'm happy that we all together sent a sign because things in this department, for sure, need to change. We cannot influence all of it but as much power as we have as a unit, or as a society, we should try to use in this moment. I really hope it has an impact.
On how necessary he feels it is to the squad's chance of finishing in the top four to secure his first win as Liverpool manager at Old Trafford...
More than 100 per cent, and even if the others all win then nothing changed really for us. But without winning football games, we will not end up in any kind of European competition. For us everything is clear, we have to win.
On what he expects from the game...
Of course, a very tough game, a very intense game hopefully for both teams. We could see last night Man United playing and they are good, especially after [a] half-time talk. It looks like they were really flying. So, it's a tough one but whatever it means for other clubs, I have no idea. I didn't know until you told me now, actually I thought City is already champion – not mathematically, I know. But, of course, strange things can happen in football and I'm pretty sure United believe still in their chance and that's good. So it will be a game where two teams try to win it – this is a good start for a football game, I would say. Actually both teams have to win it, which is a good recipe for a good game as well, so let's see what we can make of that.
On United's quick turnaround after playing in the Europa League on Thursday night...
It's completely different, it's different to our situation now. When you play on Thursday and Sunday again, yes, United has got used to that during the season but that doesn't make it better. It's really a tough challenge, definitely, for them. Today they obviously recover, tomorrow they have second-day recovery and on the next day they play again, so there's not a lot you can really do in training to change things or whatever. But I don't think United anyway wanted to change a lot. I think like 75 per cent of the team is the same team playing most of the games – last line, midfield pretty much [is] Fred, McTominay, maybe Matic comes in and then the four up front, Fernandes is playing pretty much all games and the other three he can change from time to time. So is it Rashford up front or Greenwood up front, is it James on the wing or Greenwood on the wing, is Rashford on the wing, or Pogba on the wing? Obviously Pogba played obviously again a really good game last night. So who we will face is pretty clear. That they cannot make massive changes and probably will not make if they had no injuries last night, I think that's clear.
It's tough but, how I said, we had in the last years as well always late in the season these kind of fixtures – playing Wednesday Champions League and then on Saturday the Premier League. We had to win all the games and we tried to do that. Most of the time it worked out for us. So it's just a fight, to fight yourself – but they know that themselves as well and we have to fight as well. Especially if you play Tuesday and Saturday, that's absolutely no problem. Or Thursday and you would play Monday, that's absolutely no problem. Thursday-Sunday is a challenge but, how I said, they had a lot of good results after being on international duty during the week. They will be fine, I'm afraid.
On whether being in the Champions League or not will make a difference to the make-up of his squad next season…
I don't think so really. Playing Champions League obviously is massive, from especially a financial point of view for the club it's really important. If we cannot make that, that's not good, definitely not. But no, I don't think it will change anything because the situation was difficult before, is difficult after, football is in a difficult situation so no, I don't think it will change a lot.
On whether Old Trafford is the best place to go 'when confidence is lacking'…
We will see. For sure it's a game, whichever situation you are in, when you are a Liverpool player or Liverpool manager this is the game where you have to give absolutely everything anyway. Is it the best place to go after conceding a late goal against Newcastle? I don't know. Is it the best place to go after watching them score five goals in one half last night? I don't know. It's not important really because between now and then a lot of things can happen, we just have to make sure we are ready for it. It doesn't happen really often that you face an opponent in exactly the right moment, so like with [them] having five red cards in the last game and little niggles so that they all cannot play. They looked pretty good last night, to be honest, and we have to make sure that we are ready for that. But I have no worries that we will not [be], to be honest. We had a good training week, we trained intensely, we tried to simulate the intensity of our normal rhythm and that means we will have the right legs to go in and then we have to see what we make of it.
On whether confidence is the 'most elusive thing for a manager to work on'…
Yeah, of course. It's now not that difficult but it's like you work on it and then unfortunately you have directly another game and then you can lose it again because you don't score in this and that situation, and stuff like this. In the last three games we had 36 chances, I think, and scored twice, so that's obviously not a number you want to have. But there are two things you can read out of that – yeah, we don't score often enough, but we create as well quite a decent number and that's what we have to keep doing. We try to help the boys. We show them the situation [but are] not shouting at them and going for them, 'How can you not score in this situation?' It's just giving them different options in the moment, helping them with the right information. So after after the game obviously I was not in a good mood, nobody should have been but I was not as well. A day later it was slightly better, but not much, two days later I was completely fine and I watched then five or six games of us in two days and just tried to understand the things even better, even though I'd watched them before. A lot of things work really out for us still on a football pitch, but it's all covered by the not-often-enough finishing and conceding late. You can concede a late goal obviously, that happens in football, but when it costs you pretty much everything you worked for before then it's really harsh and we had that now twice in a row, which is not cool but it happened.
What we now try to be again, and I am, is very positive about our chances in the next game and that's all I need. The boys look like they are positive as well, that's important in football, and we have to go again. And in times when you didn't score enough goals in recent times or games it's always like this: you have to overcome it. It doesn't happen to you, it's not that the ball rolls in front of your foot and you only have to push it over the line, that will not happen. You just have to bring yourself again in these decisive situations [and] when you are there then you try to make the right decision. That's what we are working on with a lot of things in training and talks obviously as well, and video sessions. It was a busy week but no problem, I have nothing else to do so we try to use the time.