Klopp: This season has made me a better coach .. We will not use injuries as an excuse
Liverpool coach Juergen Klopp held an interview with the global "Sky Sports" network before tomorrow's match against Chelsea.
The two teams meet at Anfield in the twenty-ninth round of the English Premier League.
Klopp said: "Before the season, yes, we knew that we were good. This does not mean that we were guaranteed to win the English Premier League, but this increases your responsibility to achieve something."
"We are still a good team, but a lot of things have happened this season, and if you want to win the league in England, you have to play almost a perfect season," he added.
He continued: "You can see that now with Manchester City, they did not start out perfectly, but it is clear that they are now in a state that looks like perfection, the results are great 100%, and the performance is wise, this is the season in which you have to play to become a champion in England." .
He continued: "We started the season well. We were at the top of the Premier League for a while, or close to it, and we scored goals. It was clear that the problems we suffered from would affect us if we could not solve them when the injured players returned. This is what happened." .
He explained: "Most of the problems are due to injury. This year we faced completely new problems. I have never in my life - and I have been doing this for 20 years - to provide updates on our team every week."
He continued: "I am a much better coach this season than I was before because you usually do not need to think about these things, but now I have to think about them constantly."
Klopp gave the example: “We had a Friday night stand, we trained all week, or the few days we had to train, with a set lineup and then overnight we had to change it completely, and that's another big thing to do which is common in a ball Foot, but we passed it many times. "
He stressed: "People may say that this is an excuse, I cannot care much about that, to be honest, we do not use them (injuries) as an excuse, but if you ask me, this is the explanation for why things have changed this season."
Liverpool have suffered from many injuries in the defense this season, as there is Virgil van Dyck and Joe Gomez who suffer from long-term injuries and will be absent until the end of the season, as well as Joel Matip.
Klopp continued: "A lot of times you have some way to defend in matches, you don't change it often because defense is something that has to be stable. We had to change our defense method often to get any kind of stability, that's the truth, still." We can defend in every match but the way we have to adapt is to change the balance of the whole team, that was a huge challenge. "
Klopp admitted that Liverpool's attack had an effect as well. “We got the desired results for a while, but then the results were not good because we had to focus more on protecting our offensive positions. We realized that we were no longer making much, but we were still We scored goals, after that, we didn't make enough, just a few chances, and we wouldn't score as well. "
And he added: "This is the time when the results appear and you find that the train you want to be in is already far away, if not gone, now we are playing good ball again, we create opportunities but we do not score, so we faced all the problems that you could face." In football in one season. "
And he continued: "I am not angry at that or whatever, I am 53 years old, I have gone through different moments in my life, wonderful moments, and others that are not like this, it is just a problem in football, you have to deal with frustration and failures, you can learn a lot in those moments, it is It's unbelievable, that's what we're going to do, it helps you in life. "
Klopp insisted that the atmosphere is good in Liverpool despite all of that, as he said: “Teamwork is wonderful in the club. We are not angry at each other, we do not point fingers at each other, saying that what is happening is because of this or this, it is not the case, we are alone. Complete, 100%. "
He concluded: "The current situation will not like everyone, I can imagine it, I know that the behavior of the fans is not the same, just as we are not all the same, so the current situation may not like some of them, but I think we can restore them to us again."