Klopp Stresses the Importance of Staying Focused Despite Poor Results

Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool have had a very rough January. Goals and wins have proved very difficult to come by, and questions and criticism of the squad’s play and the club’s choice to not reinforce the defense during the January transfer window grow louder after each match.

Though it’s impossible to ignore the noise, Klopp is used to the intense scrutiny that comes with managing one of the biggest football clubs in the world.

“It’s normal,” said Klopp. “People in general, everything is massive news or it is not. Every day, every two seconds, there is news outside and you think ‘wow’ and then two minutes later you get more information. That is how it is.”

It’s always harder to tune out the outside world when things aren’t going well, but Klopp takes the same approach when times are tough as he does when his team is winning: shut out the noise and focus on the football.

“I know much better than you imagine how many bad things happen out there. What we try to do, and we do this in positive times as well, is we cut out the outside world when we come together, so we focus and talk only about football.”

This becomes even more difficult when it’s not just the football that has people on edge. The entire world is in crisis mode thanks to a global pandemic and that only makes it more difficult to focus on the football.

However, the German manager points out that when the Reds take the pitch, football is the only problem they can solve, so that is what they must worry about.

“Yes of course there are much more serious problems out there, but in the moment when we are on the pitch the only problem we can solve, the only thing we have to focus on, is the football problem.

Away to José Mourinho’s Tottenham is going to be a challenge, especially on Liverpool’s current form, but a win could go a long way towards helping the Reds regain their confidence. It’s another chance for Klopp’s squad to put an end to a string of poor performances, and he promises that his team will give it everything they’ve got.

“We have the chance to sort the football problem and that is what we do. We want to get something tomorrow night obviously, and we will try absolutely everything.”