Critics spur Reds on: Klopp
LONDON • Liverpool may have their backs against the wall in the Premier League but the negative coverage of the team will only spur them on to bounce back in the title race, manager Jurgen Klopp said.
The champions are winless in their last five league matches – a slide that has seen them fall from first place to out of the top four.
They were also knocked out of the FA Cup by Manchester United over the weekend and the Reds have not found the net in the league in the past month.
Klopp’s men travel to Tottenham today and a defeat will see Spurs, who are a point behind, overtake Liverpool in the league while still having a game in hand.
But at his pre-match press conference yesterday, the German hit back at how quickly the critics have written his team off, questioning why people were “losing trust and faith” in his attacking trio of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.
“I see them working on everything and we’re working as a team on solutions. It’s a complex game and it’s never about one person,” he said. “We have to become the team we want to be and that is the team nobody wants to play against. At the moment, every team is defending deep but we have another chance tomorrow night. People tell us we are the best team in the world, which we are not, but it’s not a problem.
“We have to prove it again and strike back. The more negative things that are said about us, maybe the more we want it.”
When these two sides met just over a month ago, they were first and second in the league but Spurs, like Liverpool, have hit a bad patch.
With rivals Manchester City visiting Anfield in the league on Sunday next week, Klopp, who also revealed captain Jordan Henderson and Joel Matip were back in training, knows victory here will lift some of the doom and gloom surrounding the team.
“I’m not only a good-weather coach,” he said.
“We played some good stuff against United and we have to be more consistent. We play Tottenham and we have to go game by game. Is it difficult? Yes. That’s how it is in every Premier League game.”
1 Month since Liverpool scored a league goal.
Given the quality of Liverpool’s team, even with their lengthy injury list, Spurs counterpart Jose Mourinho feels it would be folly to dismiss the visitors’ title chances as there is still half a season left.
He said: “Would anyone expect Liverpool to have a similar run to last season when winning, winning and winning non stop?
“I would not expect that as what they did was so difficult. And to win it the second time in the same way is even more difficult. But to win the title again, I think they believe they can and I believe that is what they really want.”
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TOTTENHAM V LIVERPOOL
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