Jürgen Klopp outlined the mix of intensity and patience he wants to see from his Liverpool team when they return to action by hosting Everton on Saturday.
The Reds resume the 2023-24 campaign with the 243rd edition of the Merseyside derby, kicking off at 12.30pm BST at Anfield.
Ahead of the Premier League showdown with the Blues, the manager spoke to the media at the AXA Training Centre on Friday afternoon.
In addition to an injury update on Andy Robertson and the rest of his squad, Klopp also discussed the challenge he expects from Everton, his midfield options, Harvey Elliott’s development and more.
Read a summary below…
On whether it will help the team’s new players that their first Merseyside derby comes at Anfield…
Yeah, the Merseyside derby is a special game, no doubt about that, but it’s a high-pressure game if you want and they all played them. Macca played it for sure [at] the World Cup or with Argentina. Dom played Serbia recently in a super-important, high-pressure game, so they are all used to the kind of game. To the exact game not, that’s true. But actually, I cannot change that now. I cannot show them a movie of derbies and say that’s how it will be because they were all different as well. So I don’t think we should make it too big for them. I think they are ready for it, no doubt about that. And that’s how it is with changes, when really experienced players leave the club then you have to make your own experience again yourself, and that’s what we do.
On his record of just one defeat in Merseyside derbies…
One too much! Yeah, but they were all different, all difficult for different reasons. And I don’t think it makes too much sense to compare now other derbies with this derby because it’s a different team, different manager. Let’s have a look at the facts and the facts are that Everton is in a good moment. It was a difficult finish of the season but successful because they stayed in; and then the start was not that easy but since three or four weeks they get the results. Before that they had already performances – shots on goal, stuff like this, not always an awful lot of possession but knowing how to find the goal and the direction. That’s good and you can see it.
It’s clear Burnley in the best moments were a super-difficult team to play and you can see that again, similar things. Different players, similar things. And it’s good, it’s difficult to defend. You have to be ready for second-ball fights, we have to be ready for runs in behind, we have to be ready for a compact defence, all these kinds of things. It will be a tough one, derbies always were tough, Premier League games always are tough. We just have to make sure we are in this football understanding and that we are patient enough, all of us – people as well – we have to make sure we just put a proper shift in, take the fight and go for it.
On the importance of players such as Kostas Tsimikas being ready when called upon, with Robertson now sidelined due to injury…
Yeah, very. Very important, that’s clear. It always was like this. Thank God it’s not only Kostas we have for that because otherwise with the amount of games we have we would already be again a bit short. But we have Joe Gomez who can play the position, we have Luke Chambers and other young boys who show up in training quite frequently. We had them now in the international break training week until yesterday when the other boys were not in yet. You see the young kids really showing up and that’s good, there’s a lot of talent in there. You need options, that’s clear, and Kosti is definitely the most experienced on the position, so that’s good. But he cannot play all the games from now on so we need other options as well, and that’s what we have to make sure: that we can use all of them.
On whether his midfield set-up is still in a trial phase to find players’ best positions…
I don’t think we are in a finding phase really but it’s early in the season, so who knows who will play from next week on, on which position, because it depends to availability and stuff like this. But the way we play, it’s definitely possible. You only talk about a player on a position that he has not this or that, and these kinds of things, when as a team you are not compact enough, when we talk about defending. That’s how it is. Of course Macca can play the position, there’s no doubt about it. We can play a different system, we can play with a double pivot if you want, that might be then two eights rather than two sixes. That’s the situation, but there are really plenty of things and that’s not my problem at all in the moment, that I think about that and wake up at night and think, ‘Who can we put there?’
Endo played again two really good games for Japan, coming back. It’s just a tricky selection because they came yesterday [for], what is that, like an easy session – coming in, warming up, rondo and then you send them in again. We have to wait how they feel, we have to talk to them. It’s nothing to do with how it was four weeks ago, it’s always different. We tried to organise the travelling slightly better this time, that hopefully helped. It’s not a problem who can play where, it’s just we have to make sure we find the right players who are able for the intensity of that game, because obviously Everton trained [with] nearly a full squad, obviously not all of them but they had the majority of the players together. So we have to make sure we can really keep that intensity level that is needed in a derby.
On his good record in the Merseyside derby…
Never thought about it. It’s rather uncomfortable if you tell me about my good record because I could not be less interested in what happened, really. What does it mean? You won a game last week, you won a game five weeks ago, a year ago, 10 years ago, who cares? It’s really not important. What we always try to make sure [is] we don’t think about these kind of things – records and these kind of things. We make sure we are really ready for the game. We understand the importance of the game, we understand the pressure that comes up with it, that’s how it is. I can’t remember one moment when I said, ‘Oh, this weekend is the derby…’ and then enjoyed that thought. It is just not happening. There’s a lot of intensity, even before the first ball is kicked, and that is what you have to make sure – that you channel that in the right areas, that with all the extra motivation from outside you make sure you really play the way you want to play because that gives you a chance to win a football game. If you want to just play a game the other team is asking for then OK, you always react, you always react. We have to push through our own thing in moments.
They definitely deserve the respect because they do really well. Calvert-Lewin is back and obviously that is super-helpful, a super-important player to them. Doucoure looks like [he is] back to his best. Around him, with Harrison and McNeil on the wings, that’s real quality. In the middle, Gueye couldn’t play, but then Onana, Garner, talent, real talent there. Last line, super-experienced and with Branthwaite now a really good left-footed centre-half. That’s a good team and then England’s No.1 in the goal, so that’s a really good team. That’s what you think about. I understand the derby, but I cannot prepare it like a one-off game, we have to make sure that we play to our best and if we can do that then we are a really difficult opponent. And if we are a difficult opponent then we can win the game and if we do that then it’s fine. That’s all we are thinking about.
On Elliott captaining England U21s…
Harvey since he is here grew up, matured, became a man, [or] is on the way to become a man and is just a really good player for us. It was definitely a proud moment for him and if you would know him a little bit better then you could imagine how proud it made him and his family. If you are a good footballer and young and smart then you take the right role models in the right moment and use the things you see, the things you hear. That is what Harvey is definitely doing but on this way you should not forget we are all different and so you have to make your own development, [which] is very important as well. How you see life, how you understand the things happening around you. He is in a really good way, I have to say. Played really well for England, played well for us in a lot of moments, has still space for improvement, he knows that, and we are working on that. But I am really happy he came back with the smile on the face he had when he came in here. We were asking him if he was still wearing the armband – he wasn’t! No, all good, and it was a really, really nice thing. When I saw it, I thought, ‘OK, that means a lot to him.’
On working on a solution to get the Reds’ South American contingent back quickly from their international matches in midweek…
That’s what we always do. For the first time it didn’t work out because of a miscommunication with other clubs. We booked flights, better flights, brought them all together, picked them up wherever they played so they didn’t have to take the commercial flights from here to there, which is obviously pretty tiring after 100 minutes of football then you leave to an airport and then you have to make sure you get your connecting flight and stuff like this. We are pretty good at that usually because we had enough opportunities to practise it. This time it was much better so the boys were pretty quickly after the game on a plane and could fly straight to England. That makes a massive difference. What we can do, we always try to do. First time it didn’t work out because it is pretty expensive, you cannot pay all this for planes alone all the time, so usually we share it with other clubs and this time that worked out pretty well.
