Klopp Talk: Liverpool Look Forward to the Challenge of Dyche’s Everton

In his pre-match press conference, head coach Jürgen Klopp spoke on the need for informed and targeted intensity in Monday’s derby:

Intensity is always important, an important part of the game and we never went into a derby and said, ‘Oh, I have nothing to say, it’s a derby, go for it.’ There is always information we have to give and we will give [it] this time as well. We know it’s a difficult game, Sean Dyche is now there and obviously a massive impact immediately, it was obvious. We have to prepare that – that’s what we did and will do in the upcoming days.

Though Dyche is new at the helm across Stanley Park, Klopp and many of his team are familiar with his style and tactics due to his long tenure at Burnley. Klopp is preparing his team for

A very compact side, very good in counter-attacking really and set-pieces will be very dangerous for us and a very important subject definitely. That’s the team, you could see that in the last game, it was good, a really good game. They had a lot of the game in their moments. Of course Arsenal were dominant, that’s clear, but in the end Everton had really good chances before they scored already and the goal came from a set-piece; that’s how they scored in the end but they could have scored in other moments as well.

So we prepare for the team we saw against Arsenal, that makes sense. And because they are longer together now, all the patterns can be all a bit clearer for everybody. But the difference is it’s not there, it’s here – so we have to make sure that is clear and will be clear in the game as well.

Beyond the tactics, though, the Liverpool manager does see this as an opportunity to give the team a lift, to show what a Liverpool side should be about:

Yeah, it was very often now in recent years that it was always like this, that Everton could sort a lot of problems just beating us or whatever, when they were not happy with what happened around, and for us it was not a normal game but another game where we needed desperately three points. That didn’t change, to be honest. But I know where you’re coming from, of course. After the game we played again now at Wolves, we have to show a reaction again. I know our people want to see that. I want to see that. We have to show that.

This is not a time we wanted to have or a time we are happy to be in or whatever. But I think this is a time where as well we can show, if we want to show, that the club is really special. The boys delivered a lot of great moments in the last few years. In the moment, for different reasons – not all of them are clear – it’s not possible or we didn’t do it. But we are fighting for it, to change the situation in a better direction.

I really believe the better you behave in your lower moments, the quicker you get in the better moments again and then the much more success you will have in the better moments because you are just still together. That’s, I think, in normal relationships like that and football relationships should be like that as well. And I thought so far we did really well all together, especially our supporters. And I’m really looking forward to a derby atmosphere, a proper atmosphere and to a proper, proper football game.