Gini Wijnaldum: “The Focus Was Different Than A Few Weeks Before”

Gini Wijnaldum had a good game this weekend. Luckily, and completely unlike the last few weeks, so did the rest of the team. Amidst the sighs of relief, Wijnaldum wanted to highlight how important it was for the team that Jürgen Klopp never gave up on them.

“It was really important the manager believed in us because if a manager says the same as the critics in the situation we were in that is killing for a team. It would kill the confidence of the players and that is not good,” Wijnaldum said.

“When you are a team you have to believe in each other, you are a kind of family and if one of yours says: ‘You’re not good enough’ or what the media has been saying that is not a good thing. He believes in us and I don’t think he just said it because he wanted to keep the confidence – I think he truly believes it as well. That gave us a good feeling.”

The team was definitely taking the heat after its disastrous January (and early-February), and Wijnaldum admitted that it was starting to take a toll.

“Of course you feel the pressure. I think in some situations we put too much pressure on ourselves and that is why it went so wrong. If you have a few poor games in a row you are going to put pressure on yourself of ‘we have to win this one or this and this will happen’. I think we were too busy thinking about the consequences than concentrating on the game.

“This week we were only concentrating on Tottenham – how we can play against them, how we can hurt them and so on. The focus was different than a few weeks before. That is my opinion.”