Jürgen Klopp Is Unfazed By Real Madrid’s Bench

It’s all happening. The Liverpool team are in Kiev and getting ready for the Champions League final tomorrow. Jürgen Klopp faced the press today in the Ukraine with Jordan Henderson and Virgil Van Dijk ahead of the main event. They were all smiles sitting together facing the journalists in the room, clearly buzzing to be so close to something absolutely amazing for this football club.

Real Madrid have the recent Champions League experience card to play along with an eye-watering level of talent throughout their squad but the Liverpool manager wasn’t interested in sizing up his opponent’s every cog. His team have been dangerous this season against all sorts of opposition. Real Madrid are just another one that will have to learn to cope with Liverpool’s relentless pursuit.

“We don’t have the same quality as bench as Real Madrid,” said Klopp, “because Vazquez and Asensio are young but have unbelievable quality as well as whoever sits beside them.

“It’s not about comparing all their good parts. We’ll have the best bench available to us in weeks tomorrow night.

“We are as fresh as we can be. Fitness will not be an issue tomorrow. To win a final, each team in the past needed a bit of luck. That’s what we need tomorrow as well.

“We need to be ready for all the challenges in the game. But we will never compare anything they have with what we don’t have. We’re fine with our tools. We want to use them.

“Maybe a few clubs have better things that we have - but they are not in the final. We want to do it our way and then we’ll see where it leads to.”

Klopp has urged his players to not get overwhelmed by the occasion in Kiev, but instead to just settle into the game as quickly as possible. After an extended break following the Premier League season, Liverpool will be fighting fit and focused on playing their way, pressing, attacking and enjoying the hell out of it.

“We have an early agreement,” Klopp said. “I am responsible for the defeats. The boys are responsible for all the things we win.

“If we don’t win I can respond to that, 100%. We’ve spoken about all the things but at the end, the main message is all the things we’ve worked on, since we were together, are made for being used in a game like tomorrow.

“It’s all about football. I think most of the players will be nervous. It’s a normal feeling, then do what you do best. Play football. Fight with your mates. Shoot, cross, make headers, bicycle kicks.

“Do the things you want. It’s only a football game. A big one, for sure, but we’ll try and deal with it as normal as possible.”

We are go for bicycle kicks. I repeat, we are go for bicycle kicks.