Liverpool - Aston Villa 2:0 | "Naby Keita is a top player!" - Jurgen Klopp
- 4 years ago
On whether he is proud that Liverpool are the only side in Europe’s major divisions with a 100 per cent winning record at home in the league so far this season…
The decisive word is ‘so far’! We didn’t come here and have the numbers we have because we thought about breaking records or something like that, we were always focused 100 per cent on the game and that will not change. In the end, whenever hopefully in the future any of these records will end or series will end then I can start thinking about it maybe. So far, I don’t even know the numbers, to be honest. I know we have 89 points, for example, because we had 86 before the game, but it’s just not a big thing. If we can do something special it is great but we really don’t think too much about it.
On whether the chance to break Premier League records provides his team with motivation for the final weeks of the campaign…
I think the boys know it. It’s easy, if we want to have a record points tally we pretty much have to win all the football games so it’s not that complicated - I don’t have to mention it, the boys know that. But it’s not necessary for this group, we played for everything each three days, for the three points, because you don’t get any more how ever good you play. You get three points if you win and that’s enough and I saw that again today. These boys are really fighting for these three points in a very difficult game. I think we should have had, in the first half, a shot on target because it should have been a penalty on Mo Salah, to be honest. But it was a difficult game, Aston Villa did really well and now everybody will be really happy that I mentioned it but the wind was again really tricky. I see a few of you sitting in the stands with winter coats and on the pitch the wind in the far right corner was incredible. I’m not sure who from Aston Villa tried to shoot the ball as far as he can and it came pretty much straight back. One reason, the wind [itself] and another reason, it dries the pitch like crazy and it means the pitch was really difficult. If you have the ball and you want to play then it’s difficult, if you cannot play on the ground but want to go with long balls [then] the wind doesn’t help with that. So it’s better that you are the not-dominant team in these situations and we had a few problems, but I liked how we stayed in the game, how we tried to find solutions, how the boys listened at half-time and during the first drinks break already. We tried really to adapt and I saw the improvement on the pitch, and then of course when the fresh players came on it was easier for them with fresh legs against a team that was already really busy until then and helped our players as well. It’s just an intense period - we will go through that but we need to make smart decisions.
On giving game-time to his young players…
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The decisive word is ‘so far’! We didn’t come here and have the numbers we have because we thought about breaking records or something like that, we were always focused 100 per cent on the game and that will not change. In the end, whenever hopefully in the future any of these records will end or series will end then I can start thinking about it maybe. So far, I don’t even know the numbers, to be honest. I know we have 89 points, for example, because we had 86 before the game, but it’s just not a big thing. If we can do something special it is great but we really don’t think too much about it.
On whether the chance to break Premier League records provides his team with motivation for the final weeks of the campaign…
I think the boys know it. It’s easy, if we want to have a record points tally we pretty much have to win all the football games so it’s not that complicated - I don’t have to mention it, the boys know that. But it’s not necessary for this group, we played for everything each three days, for the three points, because you don’t get any more how ever good you play. You get three points if you win and that’s enough and I saw that again today. These boys are really fighting for these three points in a very difficult game. I think we should have had, in the first half, a shot on target because it should have been a penalty on Mo Salah, to be honest. But it was a difficult game, Aston Villa did really well and now everybody will be really happy that I mentioned it but the wind was again really tricky. I see a few of you sitting in the stands with winter coats and on the pitch the wind in the far right corner was incredible. I’m not sure who from Aston Villa tried to shoot the ball as far as he can and it came pretty much straight back. One reason, the wind [itself] and another reason, it dries the pitch like crazy and it means the pitch was really difficult. If you have the ball and you want to play then it’s difficult, if you cannot play on the ground but want to go with long balls [then] the wind doesn’t help with that. So it’s better that you are the not-dominant team in these situations and we had a few problems, but I liked how we stayed in the game, how we tried to find solutions, how the boys listened at half-time and during the first drinks break already. We tried really to adapt and I saw the improvement on the pitch, and then of course when the fresh players came on it was easier for them with fresh legs against a team that was already really busy until then and helped our players as well. It’s just an intense period - we will go through that but we need to make smart decisions.
On giving game-time to his young players…
SUBSCRIBE: https://dailymotion.com/FootballTalk