Jürgen Klopp and the Title Race Implications of the Draw with Leicester City

The Liverpool manager was annoyed after a frustrating draw with Claude Puel’s team but otherwise unconcerned with further hoo-ha.

There was a tantalizing 7-point gap at the top of the Premier League table in play for Liverpool’s match against Leicester City. The Reds could have put more distance between themselves and Manchester City with a win but Claude Puel’s side, the weather, and the referee proved formidable obstacles. Snowy conditions made for a frustrating night of football out on the pitch.

Liverpool left Anfield with a point against the Foxes and a lousy, yet splendid, 5-point gulf down to second place. Things are still good but taking advantage of City’s slip up against Newcastle would have been delicious dessert.

Jürgen Klopp was bemused with some of Martin Atkinson’s more blatant errors in his post match comments, but overall the manager was content with the result, considering the difficulties his team faced during the game, and unconcerned with any title race hysterics.

“Am I disappointed after we don’t win a game? Of course I am,” said Klopp.

“I don’t bring it too much together with the Man City game. I understand all these thoughts, but what shall we do now? What do you think when you ask?

“It is really easy to ask all these questions, but we have to make sure that we are not too much influenced by all these things. The boys are normal human beings, I am absolutely a normal human being. We wanted to win a football game, we didn’t win it and so we don’t feel brilliant.

“Afterwards, we have to talk about ‘what does that mean for the Man City [result]?’ Not too much, to be honest. We have a point more than before – it is not exactly what we wanted to have, but still everything is fine.

“As I understand at the moment, I don’t think anybody further was injured, which obviously helps us a lot. Now we have a few days to prepare for West Ham and then we go again, then Bournemouth and we go again and all that stuff. That is what we will do, not counting points and hoping for gaps between us and other teams.

“We have to win our football games. That didn’t happen tonight and so we are not happy about that, but it’s not more.”

Liverpool have already proven they can bounce back from a poor performance and there’s a trove of evidence that suggests the next match at West Ham will show a return to dominant form. Crucial to this confidence in the squad is certainly Jürgen Klopp’s real-human personality and his conscientious leadership of the squad.

There were just too many blocks to Liverpool’s progress against Leicester and the match ended in a draw. Some days are just tough. Good ones will be back.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com