Klopp Talk: “We Give Ourselves One Day For Recovery And Then We Go Again”

Te pressure of the season is already mounting, despite roughly three games in. The squad depth is already causing anxiety all over and with games starting to come hard and fast through the weeks, with two more matches happening in the next week after three the past week. Jürgen Klopp has come under some criticism for how Liverpool are prepared to manage the coming matches and struggles and he’s remained ever optimistic.

“We all have pressure and it’s a quick start always,” Klopp said recently. “You need to be there immediately, deliver and all that stuff. The difference this year is that it’s really hard, we all know a draw today, two points instead of four or six, it doesn’t feel good but you can sort it.

“The pre-season is friendly games, I don’t like that word but they are. In the moment it’s a test game and really important but when you’re back nobody is interested. It was a friendly game. The difference could not be bigger in the first moment.

“Last week I thought in one part Watford was better than that, it was just physicality because they were just a little bit more ready. The challenge was to be 100% for Watford, we can’t think about the Hoffenheim game, but we can’t forget about it.

“That’s the challenge, that’s the situation. So far, so good. We know we give ourselves one day for recovery and everything starts again.”

With the second leg of our qualifiers coming up and Klopp having fielded an interesting squad yesterday for the match against Crystal Palace, questions of his rotations for the next match against Hoffenheim were natural.

“That was not the smartest last question because I do not talk about the group stage,” Klopp continued, but did not stop himself from explaining his thoughts. “If we can, we have to. It’s all about the boys. If they play in a game like this today, like they did after not having a game so far.

“Joe (Gomez) no minutes, (Andy) Robbo in a new club, no minutes for Ragnar (Klavan) or Daniel (Sturridge), if they perform like this then yes, we will change, 100%.

“If not, we can’t because we cannot give a game away, we cannot say that’s not that important. We all know that’s not possible, especially in England, so we should not even try it.”

Obviously it’s pretty clear where his thoughts and prospects are heading.