Klopp Talk: “This Is Our Base And We Will Build On This Base”

Three matches in. Three matches and we’ve gotten every possible result. A win, a loss, and a draw. It’s not quite what any of us imagined, is it, when we started the season. It’s almost bittersweet. A lot of fans are dwelling on the could haves. We could have had two goals. We could have nine points. We could have a new left back. A whole slew of them, on the back end of a draw against Tottenham. A match we could have won.

“This game showed again what we can do, how we can play,” Jürgen Klopp said, speaking to the press after the match yesterday. “It was not only about pressing and things like this, although we did it really well. We were really flexible in offensive defending and then played football. We had wonderful moments with passing and all that stuff, the direction in our game. Yes, I wish we would have won it but now we have to accept the point and that’s no problem because it’s Tottenham.”

There’s been a lot of opportunities in the past three matches to show what we can do as a team, and there will be a whole lot more to come. Following a win against Arsenal and a loss against Burnley - two different extremes - it’s hard to remember that sometimes. The only way to improve, really, is to take chances. To capitalize on those chances, make chances to be able to score.

“We had a few, that’s a good sign, but at the end that’s all that we take for our future to analyze when we meet again in 10 days,” Klopp continued. “In the end we have to accept [it] and we have to say the result is 1-1. Whatever I could say now would not change the result. We have to accept it, that’s what we do.”

With 13 shots and 3 of those on goal, there was not a lack of chances in a game that was about as evenly matched as one could get. Bittersweet, not to have scored a second time, to have that second goal disallowed. Optimism, though, should drive us.

“It is an early moment in the season and we have not had the easiest start, so for this it’s OK,” he added. “Sitting here with four points after three games is not what I wanted but this is our base and we will build on this base.”

There were definitely stretches of brilliance in the match. Of pressing and passing, of defending. Enough to feed the hope for the rest of the season. It’s not where any of us would like to be sitting before an international break, sure, but barring anything terrible happening during the break, it’s a good place to build from going forward.