Jürgen Klopp on Osasuna win, Robbo injury and squad competition
Jürgen Klopp is relishing the level of competition within his squad as Liverpool prepare to begin the Premier League season this weekend.
Takumi Minamino and Roberto Firmino (two) were on target as the Reds beat CA Osasuna 3-1 in the second of their back-to-back friendlies at Anfield on Monday night.
Highlights: Liverpool 3-1 Osasuna
It was the final warm-up game for Klopp’s men before they start the campaign proper with a trip to Norwich City on Saturday afternoon.
Post-match, the boss spoke to Liverpoolfc.com about the victory over Osasuna, the encouragement he takes from some of the individual performances of his players, and the news that Andy Robertson suffered ankle ligament damage on Sunday.
Read a summary of the interview below…
On Liverpool’s performance…
The first half was absolutely exceptional in real different departments. The way we, first of all, defended the second balls – because we didn’t have to do that last night too often but today obviously Osasuna have a different approach, so a lot of long balls. We had a lot of finishes so they had a lot of goalie kicks. I liked the formation around that, winning these balls back, passing forward as quick as somehow possible, offering these runs. Bobby between the lines was exceptional but what Kaide and Taki offered from a speed perspective was absolutely exceptional as well. Played really good in midfield, Ox was on fire obviously, Fab controlled together with the boys out there.
The counter-pressing situations with especially now Bobby and Oxlade was just really good and how it should be. The last line worked good together, defended well. And the goals we scored were outstanding. We could have scored already earlier with the super pass of Ibou [to] Taki. He couldn’t finish that but then the next one he finished off – great. Really nothing to moan about. The second half was harder but we asked the boys to control it slightly more, mix the rhythm, which is then obviously not too easy to do but they tried. With all the changes, we didn’t really disrupt the rhythm. It was good.
On a timeframe for Robertson’s injury…
Not really, but I think we got lucky with that. It could have been much worse. We saw the footage, it didn’t look too well. But I think we got lucky, it will not be too long. I’m not sure [if] before the international break or after the international break, it’s difficult in these situations. But not too long. Obviously really good to have Kostas in the back hand, to have little Owen Beck in the back hand, which is nice as well.
On Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain…
Look, I know Ox for so long now it was not necessary to talk. It was clear what the thing is – he needed a full pre-season. [The same] for plenty of players. For Taki it was the first pre-season with us properly; it was the first pre-season for a long time with Ox. It helps for all of them who were part of all the sessions, that helps and you can then get the games. I think Ox played in six pre-season games, was part of it, Taki probably as well. You can see then how much it means. The same for yesterday when you think about Naby, it’s the same for him – that it’s very important. That’s what you need and now we have a proper situation and with how it looked tonight, come on, make the line-up for Norwich. Who do you want to leave out after these two games? That’s how it should be, the boys had to put pressure on themselves with the performances they put on the pitch and that’s what you wish for in an ideal world. Hopefully they can all stay fit and they can put for the whole season pressure on each other in a very positive way – who wants to play has to play like we did today or in yesterday in moments. That’s the football we want to play and that’s the football that made us successful and could potentially make us successful again. We’ll see.
On heading into Saturday with excitement…
First off, my hope is that with the fit players it stays like this because the season starts and then you have different periods in the season and we need them all. We need them all, that’s for sure. I am not famous for being negative, but I just hope it stays like this, that we can keep bringing people into the stadium and then you can see, both teams – yesterday and today – were absolutely inspired by that. It’s good for the people, it’s good for the players and it is much more excitement, much easier to enjoy everything, much more emotional. There is much more passion in and outside of the stands. Yes, I am very excited about the new season, absolutely.