Klopp and Liverpool Looking Forward to “Interesting and Difficult” Club World Cup

All most Liverpool fans can agree on this season is that the Premier League is priority one and the Champions League priority two. After that, just how important anything else is—or if it’s important at all—is an open question.

According to Jürgen Klopp, though, the players at least are determined to win everything they can. Every game, every competition, every trophy. Which means they’ll be fully committed to winning the Club World Cup when it kicks off next month.

“I see it as an absolute opportunity as you don’t often have the chance to play for it,” Klopp said of the upcoming competition to crown football’s world champion, controversially set to take place in Qatar in December.

“You have to win the Champions League as the European team, so that already makes it special. We knew it’d feel great when we won the Champions League, but then we had no real clue how it’d be around the European Super Cup.

“So, we played it and it felt really great and really big. When we go there, we will be prepared and looking forward to it. The boys want to play it, so it will be very interesting, and it will feel big for us, 100 per cent.”

While another two games in an already packed fixture list might not be ideal from a load management point of view, the chance to officially be named 2019’s Champions of Earth does have an undeniable appeal.

There’s also the chance to take on unusual competition, with the Reds almost certain to face Mexico’s Monterrey in the semi-final and—should they get past the Liga MX side—the yet to be determined South American champions in the final.

“The very interesting and difficult part as well is that we’ll be playing against teams from other continents, which doesn’t happen that often,” Klopp added. “Maybe a Mexican team, maybe a Brazilian team. It will be a tough one for sure.

“We’ll prepare for it as we would usually, and we will see if it’s right or wrong against the team from another continent. We don’t have too much information yet, but we will by then and it will be interesting and difficult as well.”