Jürgen Klopp met with the media following Liverpool's 2-1 win over West Ham United at London Stadium Wednesday night. The boss discussed the club's three-match win streak and whether that was enough to put the Reds in a Champions League chase, and the play of Curtis Jones.
There was plenty for Klopp to be excited about following the victory. He said he liked the club's response after going down 1-0 and added that he felt the victory was a deserved result.
“I liked the performance a lot, big parts of it,” Klopp said “First half, I think we were exceptional. Controlled the game from the beginning pretty much, made one mistake, and bam – 1-0 down. Great goal. Second half I liked as well. We had to really dig in deep then because of the physicality of West Ham, they always have a chance to come back as long as you don't kill the game – and we didn't. [We] had massive chances after set-pieces, I have no clue how we didn't take them – I didn't understand it but then [we] scored a wonderful goal from a set-piece. I think we are the deserved winner and that's, for me, very important.”
Klopp has repeatedly had to answer questions about the Champions League all season and you can tell he is visibly annoyed by those questions. (see his pre-match press conference vs West Ham as an example). Well, he had to answer the same type of questions again after the win.
“I can't see the race yet, I can't,” Klopp said. “That's because we are not in the position for a race. So the only thing we can do is winning football games. If that puts pressure on other teams, that's not in our hands because we don't play them. We play Tottenham – that's it from that area, I think, of teams above us. If they win all their games, that's it for us. But I don't think about that. I want us to finish the season as good as somehow possible. I want to take something out of the season for next year. If that is European competition, great. If not, we have to accept it as well and go from there. That's what I want now.”
Curtis Jones' contributions to the club may not show up on the stat sheet, but according to Klopp, he has been a vital piece to the Red's recent success.
“Curtis has [had] a super-difficult season this year. It started with a freakish injury – it happens to young boys but he was on the edge of being not that young anymore to get these kind of things. Since he was fully fit and match-ready, he plays now and he is doing really well. He set the tone again today with the first counter-pressing situation, he was super-important. That he is a good footballer, we all knew – that he has to improve, we knew as well, and he knows, but he's in a really good moment, a really good moment, [and that is] super-helpful.”
As Klopp said there was a lot to like about this win. But I will say that fans and journalists alike need to quit fixating on the Champions League. Yes, it's still mathematically possible, but let's be honest with ourselves for a moment, it's not going to happen. Klopp knows that and he is trying to focus on other things He's not going to change his answer so quit asking the same questions. By asking the same old questions, the focus is shifted off of a tremendous win and onto something that is a pipe dream at this point.