The main focus of Jürgen Klopp's press conference after defeating Leicester City 3-0 was on Liverpool's position on the Premier League table. While he did talk about the club's overall performance and that of Curtis Jones in particular, the boss also discussed his feelings on Liverpool qualifying for the Europa League and the possibility of a Champions League bid.
While Klopp was pleased with Liverpool's performance, when asked if it was perfect, he was quick to answer.
“No, but it was good – really good,” he said. “Between the 55th and, I don't know exactly, the 75th minute maybe, I would have loved to have controlled a bit better. Our positioning was not as clear. The first 15 minutes I accept 100 percent because it was a bit of a wild game. They really went for us and we had to figure out how we could build up the game. We had to adapt to that, the boys did that, we became more flexible and from that moment on we had five players facing the other goal and could then really pass through the lines and mix it up with [a] pass in behind, like for the first goal.”
Midfielder Curtis Jones scored his first-ever brace in a Liverpool shirt. Klopp says that Jones' performance is a reflection of the improvement he has shown in recent days.
“He improved a lot, so I think a lot of things came together,” Klopp said. “You should not forget he is still a young boy and one or two years ago he played super games for us as well. Then he had a difficult spell with injuries, that's true – strange injuries, a finger in the eye and stuff like this. It took him out for a real while, but this year was especially bad. He could watch a lot of football, he could understand the game better and it looks really like that. I think where he improved the most is counter-pressing, it's exceptional, and speed of play. He doesn't keep the ball that long anymore – he does that and has to do in moments, but he is much quicker in decision-making and stuff like this. That he is a good finisher, we saw now a couple of times, both goals were absolutely exceptional.”
Before the Reds went on this current 7 game winning streak, reaching European qualification of any kind seemed like a long shot. The win vs Leicester gives Liverpool a spot in the Europa League next season, but they want more.
“Six, seven weeks ago, I didn't believe it can happen. What we lacked that time was obviously consistency and there was only one chance for us to get in these situations – winning pretty much all the football games, and that's what we had to do, it's crazy. But that's the situation we were in. That's good. We knew that before the game if we win we are qualified for Europa League, which is absolutely great from where we are coming from.
All the rest (Champions League) is not in our own hands but we know we have to win all the games until the end of the season to have a chance. Our job is to keep the pressure. But again, it's not likely. But if not, then this is already better than we could have expected six, seven weeks ago.”
No manager in football ever thinks that their club played a perfect game. If they do they are probably in the wrong business. The quest to get better is what makes teams great. Liverpool played a great game today, but as Klopp mentioned it was not perfect. I also like Klopp's honesty when he says 6 to 7 weeks ago he did not believe European qualification could happen. I'm sure there were plenty of Reds supporters who had those same thoughts during that time.
