Liverpool Must Focus on Opportunity, Not Past Dropped Points

Don’t focus on the past. Focus on the present and the potential of the future. That’s Jürgen Klopp’s message to the fans and players ahead of three Premier League games that could determine Liverpool’s title chances this season.

“It’s so positive,” Klopp told reporters ahead of Wednesday’s match against Watford when asked about the position Liverpool now find themselves in. “If you only judge the moment and see the opportunity then everything is fine.

“But if you always look one, two or three weeks back, where we dropped points, where we conceded goals, thinking ‘we have to win that’ not ‘we can win that,” that makes life a little bit more uncomfortable. That’s the truth.”

The truth is that Liverpool have dropped more points than they would have liked in recent weeks, and if in the end they miss out on the title many people will be tempted to point to that difficult start to 2019 as the reason why.

Klopp, though, is more interested in the fact that despite those stumbles, Liverpool are still top of the league. If they win tomorrow, they know they’ll stay top. And then if they beat Everton, they’ll stay top. That’s what matters.

“In a situation where you can be champions for the first time in your life—for a lot of supporters it would be the first time and for a lot of my players as well—it’s pure opportunity,” he added. “You have to use it. Be on the front foot.

“We have to make sure we can really feel that and can use that because it’s an opportunity. We need to be ready.”