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Speaking to press ahead of Liverpool’s game against West Ham United on Sunday, Liverpool head coach Jürgen Klopp spoke about the importance of living in the moment and appreciating the start:
I enjoy the moment. From the first day since we are back, I enjoyed a lot. I was really excited about the rebuild, I was really excited about the boys, the new way, the new energy. We decided last year already that we have to change a lot – but that we want to change it for good and not because we have to.
Yeah, I’m really excited about that and still am. That’s it. We are really not there, we are not stable yet, so many things not – but we are a lot of things already. A lot of exciting moments in the games and I think that’s a good start, not more. But as a start, it’s absolutely OK.
Going further in, Klopp unpacked the status of the squad’s resilience, and looked forward to the challenge of West Ham — a team who also won in Europe after conceding first:
I don’t know, I don’t know where we are exactly because we showed these kind of different phases. But obviously the things we went through now already in this season, that’s usually enough for a whole season if you have done these things after 38 games, and we have it after five – twice red card, 10 men, turning games and these things. And now [we] did it again, played a really bad half and a very good half and turned it around again [against Wolverhampton Wanderers].
Again, it’s not what you plan, it’s not what you want. But when you have it, you have to go through it and that’s what we did. So, it shows just the boys already together in a manner and in an extent we probably didn’t expect that early. That’s it. I cannot make any kind of estimate at all how it will look in the next four or five weeks. The only thing what I can do is work extremely hard to make it as positive as somehow possible.
But there are so many extremely strong opponents – West Ham is one of them when you see them. Really exciting project as well. I’m happy for David [Moyes] that he really built this team now over a few years. Even with Declan Rice out, they look really good, I have to say.
[James] Ward-Prowse, super signing. [Lucas] Paqueta is not a new signing but is a super player. With all the other guys they had already, it looks really solid and that makes it really tricky. And then we have all the other teams – top four, five, six, plus, plus, plus.
The way you want to start, the way you want to end, the league is extremely strong. It’s good for the people but it means for us we have to be the best version of ourselves.
Klopp, like most of us, seems to want a good first half for once, rather than a truly excellent second to make up for a struggle of a first.
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