Jurgen Klopp hailed Liverpool’s “massive performance” against Aston Villa in a press conference on Friday morning.
The Reds host Unai Emery’s side at Anfield on Sunday afternoon and will be looking to head into the September international break with a third Premier League win of the 2023-24 campaign in hand.
Klopp answered questions from reporters at the AXA training center ahead of the clash – read a summary of his comments…
I saw the game against Burnley – we saw almost every match in between – but I watched it when it happened. Burnley were good to be honest but Aston Villa are a machine – counter-attacking, well organised, everyone committed 100 per cent, defended deep, then go deep with everything and go from there. I think everyone would agree that if you look at Villa, the [players] they brought in, it makes a huge amount of sense. [They have] speed on the wings, Watkins up front, McGinn super
smart, physical as well, but then they really look for balls from the back and stuff like that. It’s a huge game, no doubt about it. Yes, we have to play our best game to get something out of it and we need Anfield too, so we have to make sure of that. I know it always depends at least a little bit on how we play and we have to do our part, but I know people are ready to do their part, especially after last weekend. There’s an international break after that so we can get off to a good start [and] make it a really good start to the season in terms of results. But there’s a whopping 115inutes between them.
Massive, massive, that’s for sure. That’s what he wants, that’s what we want. Just as it was meant to be – a huge threat. Of course you will see it the next day. But everyone could feel it. This game was massive. And the way it happened, all those things, for a moment it seemed for 10, 20 minutes that everything was against us – no luck, we had our hands. But the way the boys battled it out was pretty impressive. Now we should try to do it with 11 players.
We almost have to reinvent the team. The midfield is already and will be completely new. In recent years, we have had to do the same with our front line. The most stable area is of course the last line, but not now because of injuries and suspensions. And we had to do it in a season where we didn’t qualify for the Champions League, which has a huge impact, that is. I know people expected it to be different, but it is. So I think we did a very good business.
The players we brought in are really good, help the team and get even better.
And I think everyone saw that with Macca and Dom. It’s a huge step for Endo, a huge change in the way he played and the way we play, so of course it takes a while to get there, but that’s not a problem. And yes, I really like the team.
If I look at it before the game starts and you look at the lineup, and yes, the options on the bench for the last few weeks have been a little young now, but that’s also great. I think everybody likes Ben Doak to come out and get his minutes in all these games. Stefan is back in full training. So yes, our youth, but we had to. We are less experienced, but that is normal. But we are full of will. I love this team.
That’s what we see. Natural abilities are obvious to me. But we had to change and change the most successful midfield in the young history of this club. Fabinho, Henderson, Milner, Gini Wijnaldum, a few years ago now, they all had big, big parts in that team. Yes, Naby and Oxlade, all played big roles in midfield. I remember in our best periods you asked me if we were enough of a goal threat from that midfield when we scored all our goals from forward. I think we have a much bigger goal threat in midfield now, that’s for sure.
But the volume of work these guys have given us, the NM they’ve given us has been top notch, and that’s something we definitely have to build on. Let’s see how we can do it because we can play in different systems, we definitely have to think about that during the season. But we are only at the beginning of the season and we have to find [a way] for the season and you don’t do that with 12 changes in four days, but keep things as they are and go. from there. That’s what we’re doing now, but we’ll keep our eyes open for what’s best for a particular setup and adjust later. But I think it’s clear that the players we’ve brought in are really quality, young and very excited to be here. So a decent mix.
