Klopp Talk: Liverpool Must Show “Attitude and Desire” Against Arsenal

While securing the Premier League points record would be nice for the fans and a capstone on a terrific season for the players, with the league won and Liverpool a full 21 points clear with three games to go, realistically there’s not much for the Reds to play for.

Despite that, manager Jürgen Klopp still thinks that his side will be ready and fired up to face Arsenal on Wednesday evening—and he knows that with the Gunners still pushing for a European place, they’ll have to be to get a positive result from the match.

“The most important thing in this moment is that we are really competitive because our opponents obviously play for everything,” he told journalists at his pre-match press conference earlier today. “Arsenal want to qualify for Europe and we will feel that.

“That’s what we have to make sure. It’s good for our development as well because making sure for ourselves we are ready in each game, even if we don’t play for anything apart from points, and the boys have showed me that [they will do that] all the time.”

After a few less than full throttled performances against Aston Villa and Brighton after being declared champions, Liverpool did put in a solid shift against Burnley—even if in the end it was against Burnley that they dropped points after beating Villa and Brighton.

If they can do that again on Wednesday against an Arsenal side that will be pushing for a result but has shown itself to be very vulnerable at the back, the odds will be good for another three points for the Reds as the season winds its way down to the end.

“That’s why I was again really happy with the Burnley game,” Klopp added. “It was one of the better ones, we just didn’t score the goals. But that’s what we have to show—the attitude and the desire. That’s what we have to show.”