Klopp Talk: Finishing Second In The Premier League Means Nothing

The Liverpool manager won’t be satisfied with being runner-up in the title chase.

The season is still young, but it looks to be a three-horse race for the Premier League title between Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City. It is no coincidence that the three clubs, led by Jürgen Klopp, Maurizio Sarri and Pep Guardiola respectively, play arguably the most attractive and progressive football in England.

True, the fabled Klopp Third Season may—as some have claimed—have arrived with somewhat poor timing, what with City seeming to have barely missed a beat in the attempt to match last season’s record-setting 100 points and the Londoners in the midst of the customary new manager bounce.

However, it doesn’t change the fact that this is easily the strongest Liverpool side many fans have witnessed in decades, and no one, Klopp least of all, is making excuses on Merseyside for not challenging for the title until the end:

“In most sports, coming second in the Olympics you come home with a silver medal,” the German boss said recently.

“In football, it’s nothing. And it’s nothing for me as well. I want to win it, and I know that’s a responsibility.

“I put all I have, knowledge, passion, heart, experience, I throw everything into the club 100 per cent. I don’t keep anything back.

“It should work, actually, at one point. But until then, we should have a really good time.”

Liverpool supporters will be encouraged by the boss shunning faux humility and cliched banalities of taking it “one game at a time,” to instead be open with naked ambition. The 51-year-old will certainly need to put on his coach’s hat this season, as he figures out how to get his jittery front three back on track and somehow inject his midfield with sorely-needed creativity.

However, if there is one manager to have walked the halls of Anfield in recent times who one would bet on figuring it out, it’s most assuredly the Normal One.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com