Jürgen Klopp Names Liverpool’s Top Three Performers

Sadio Mané may have taken top honours at Liverpool's end of season gala this week, where he was named both the fans' and players' player of the season, but according to Jürgen Klopp it was hardly a clear-cut situation and there were at least two strong challengers with nearly as good a claim to the prize.

For Klopp, when he looks back at the season so far—because for Klopp, with two games to go and Champions League qualification on the line, the season is very much not over yet—he sees Adam Lalana and Roberto Firmino as being equally, or quite nearly so, important to any success Liverpool have had.

"It's easy to celebrate Sadio, but there were really hard challenges with Adam and Roberto and probably even a few more," noted the manager. "They have played a really good season. That's good to see. But of course it's not done. Seventy points is a wonderful number but it's not what we want to have at the end."

Just how wonderful a number 70 is is open to discussion, and with the number of points Liverpool have dropped in games they were expecting more from, many would say it should already be higher. What isn't open to discussion is that it will now need to grow over the final two weeks of the season.

Liverpool have just two games left while top four rivals Arsenal and Manchester United have three, and with those two sides four and five points back respectively, it's almost impossible to imagine a scenario where those 70 points are enough to get Liverpool the top four finish that would make this season a success.

"The other teams play also," Klopp added. "It's not only us who play difficult football games, all of us have to do it, so now we can go for the next three points. West Ham will not be easy, but it's exactly like this for all the rest also."