Klopp Talk: Focus Is On Newcastle, Not Title Race

The boss is ready to look ahead, but not that far ahead.

Season’s greetings! While you gathered ‘round the Christmas tree with family and loved ones — or, if you’re like me, counted down the hours until Boxing Day because somehow you got pink eye and you need to go to the doctor — Jürgen Klopp had his pre-Newcastle press conference.

While we all may be going to sleep with dreams of sugar plums and league titles dancing in our heads, the boss is adamant that they take things one step at a time. But of course, he said it in his own, inimitable Klopp style.

“There is no pressure, I don’t see the pressure,” he said. “Yes there is pressure because we want to win against Newcastle and that is difficult enough. But if I saw someone in a pre-match interview asking a player about May and stuff like that, I would take the mic and throw it somewhere.

“We have to play football, not think about what we can do in the summer. If we are not first in the table on January 3 (when Liverpool are at City) for example then we would probably have lost a game. Does that mean that everything we have done so far is shit?

“If we lose a game one day and everybody immediately starts saying we showed we cannot deal with the pressure, there are still 17 games to go or whatever.

“I’m completely relaxed with the situation in this moment. I’m not too relaxed around the games, I am really on my toes I would say, but there is no extra pressure on us because of a four-point gap.”

There are two more games left in 2018. If Liverpool can find a way to victory against Newcastle on Wednesday and then Arsenal on Saturday, then they can begin 2019 on top. That’s a pretty good place to be.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com