Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is delighted that his players have been able to show some of their best form before the end of the season, despite an inconsistent campaign that has left the Reds with only an outside chance of qualifying for the Champions League. Klopp noted that the team’s six successive victories – their best sequence in over a year – has put them in that position. He said, “We play a really bad season, I think everyone in this room agrees, and now we have 62 points. It is strange. There is still quality in the boys. I am really happy we could show up a little bit. Where it will end up it’s really not about that. I know everyone wants to go to Champions League, I understand that 100 percent as that’s what I want, it is just not really likely, that is the situation we created. But to show up and show again we are able to do special things I am really happy about. Winning six games in a row is special and if it was easy we would have done it much more often, other teams would have done it much more often. Adding the seventh is even more difficult but eight and nine really difficult because it is football and other teams prepare well for the games and they have their own targets but this part of the season gave us a clear sign we are still there. Not everything is bad about us and around us. We had a bad season but let’s see what we can make of it.”
Part of Liverpool’s problem has been their woeful away record, which is only the ninth-best heading into the weekend. However, recent wins at Leeds and West Ham have given Klopp’s side the opportunity to win a third in a row away from home for the first time this season at Leicester. Klopp said, “Our away record is still not brilliant. This season I think we are third or fourth (they are second before this weekend) in the home table and ‘somewhere’ in the away table so it is still not great. But we had that discussion years ago, early when I came here, that at home we created something like a fortress but away we were not a top-six or top-four team at that time and we realised it is not that difficult, the difference is not as big as we might think. But there is a difference and we have to make sure we are ready for that. We just were not consistent enough, we needed too much help from the outside in moments this season and didn’t use it then always. That’s why we are in the position we are in.”
Klopp also noted that while the lack of Champions League football will be financially damaging next season, he is confident it will not impact his transfer plans. He said, “It is not about that. When I talk to a player – if I am allowed, which is rarely the case – but you realise in his eye that he has already clarified (the situation). We can’t tell anyone in the moment that we will definitely be in the Champions League next year so if we are talking to him then he already knows. It is obvious that we have to fight for being part of the Champions League and trophies and if you want to be part of that you are more than welcome. There is only one thing we can’t guarantee this year and that is Champions League football but all the rest is still the same, it is a fantastic football club. It is still Liverpool, we are really attractive for a lot of players and we should not forget that and that’s why I’m not concerned about that factor. Everything is more difficult without the Champions League, that is how it is especially in the long term, so we should not do these kind of things more often but apart from that it is absolutely OK the situation we are in.”