Jürgen Klopp was in a much-improved mood during his press conference Tuesday evening and why wouldn't he be? Liverpool had just beaten Wolverhampton 1-0 on the road to advance to the next round of the FA Cup. During the presser, the boss discussed how his club reacted during the match, Harvey Elliott's performance and provided a look ahead to possible changes before the Chelsea match.
Klopp, like all Liverpool supporters, knows this team is full of potential. They showed it against Wolverhampton and the boss was well-pleased.
“I think everybody who is with us got that reaction; it was the reaction we needed to show,” he said. “We were compact, we were together, we had really good challenges, won challenges when we lost the ball and we played really good football in moments. We scored an exceptional goal where Harvey saw something that I think not a lot of people in the stadium would have seen”
Klopp then went into more specifics concerning Elliott's performance, particularly playing up top as a Foward.
“When he plays well, I like him everywhere, so that's easy,” Klopp said. “But both wingers did well. Especially, Fabio, I don't know when he played last time, so he did really well. And Harvey, from that position you need to score goals, that's clear. For us, we had tonight, if you want, one striker on the pitch and he played slightly deeper in a lot of moments but that's very important. What Harvey had to do today, that's very important. Both wingers had to do that, plus the nine had to do that. We had to defend properly and to defend compact, and whoever is ready to do that is more than welcome to start wherever we will be.”
Even though the team played well, that does not mean Klopp will not make any changes in the lineup before the EPL showdown with Chelsea He gave the media an early look into his thought process ahead of the match.
“Let's have a look,” Klopp said. “I hope that Darwin is coming back in training tomorrow or Thursday, so he might be then in contention, of course. And then it is who shows up in training. It is always like that…The door is open for everybody. We have to fight. Those who are ready to fight have a good chance to play.”
Klopp was obviously pleased with his club's overall performance while pointing out the strong play of several players. I like the fact that he keeps an open competition in training. Those pushing food playing time keep the Starting XI sharp and Klopp is not afraid to make changes to the rotation to put the best players on the pitch. That can only ser team stronger in the long run.
