Klopp Talk: The Players’ “Quality, Mentality and Character” Is the Reason For Liverpool Success

Liverpool pushed on from conceding an early goal to winning 2-1 at Villa Park on Tuesday night. The game came after the disappointing draw against Tottenham, which saw Liverpool fall from one point behind Manchester City to three points behind them. Without less than a handful of league games to play, snagging the Premier League title is starting to feel impossible, but the only chance they have is to win the rest of their games.

It was a good start against Aston Villa, where Liverpool brushed off that disappointment and came away with a victory to temporarily put them on even points with City.

“Outstanding, again an incredible mentality,” manager Jürgen Klopp said about the result and performance. “Changed five times, coming here, a well set-up team obviously, in a diamond. We needed time to find into the game and the opponent was there from the beginning, like really aggressive, lot of challenges.”

Klopp gave credit to his players for the final score.

“Look, if my players would not be as good as they are I would talk about completely different stuff with you. Their quality, mentality and character is the reason why we are where we are. I’m not surprised they are able to do something like this but I don’t take it for granted – I’m really proud tonight of the boys, it was massive.”

This is basically what all of us want our dads to say about us at some point. Very, very big proud dad energy all over this post-match press conference. Klopp even gave us his own personal mental trick to dealing with the high stress of the end of the season.

“In my mind, we were six points behind City before the last matchday, and then we won and they lost and we were only three points. I came here today with that mindset, it means we are still chasing like mad. Honestly, maybe because I’m a bit dumb, but it works brilliantly for me! And the boys are invited to follow that path,” he said.

So there you go. If you’re still feeling down about the Reds losing two crucial points, just pull a Klopp and change the facts in your mind to cheer up. Gaining three points in the title race feels better than losing two, after all, even if it puts the team in the same place in the end.

On Wednesday, Manchester City play Wolves, and who knows. Maybe they’ll finally get their own stumble and Liverpool will find themselves level.