Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp interested only in hard work not dreams

In addition to the widest smile in the Premier League Jürgen Klopp also boasts a distinctive laugh. He is fond of exclaiming “Hah!” in the manner of a comedy constable uncovering a ruse every time he wishes to express derision or disbelief. Which, with the sort of questions he has been facing since arriving in England, happens to be quite often. The Liverpool manager laughed out loud when asked if his side could still join the title race and snorted again when the subject of money to spend in January raised its head.

While one fully understands Klopp’s reluctance to make himself the star of the show or make too many rash promises so soon after joining a new club, since the impressive dismantling of Manchester City last week these are not idle or irrelevant questions. A manager who takes over a team two months into a season is working with his predecessor’s idea of a squad, after all.

Klopp is not the sort of manager to chase big names or demand backing during every transfer window, that is partly why Liverpool found him so appealing, but on injury grounds alone there is a case for strengthening at Anfield in January.

Klopp was unlucky enough to lose two players with cruciate ligament injuries in his first week on Merseyside. Daniel Sturridge’s comeback seems to be on permanent hold and although Jordan Henderson is allegedly nearing fitness the manager has so far seen so little of him in action he could be forgiven for thinking his club captain is merely a rumour.

Similarly, although Klopp laughed the suggestion out of court, the idea of Liverpool entering the title race is not such a fanciful one. They have just beaten Chelsea as well as Manchester City, the last two English champions, convincingly and away from home. No one who witnessed the limp performance at Manchester United at the start of September would have predicted that, and you only have to look at Leicester City to know anything is possible this season.

Liverpool are not in Chelsea’s position, nearer the bottom than the top and with too much ground to make up. A win at home against Swansea on Sunday would keep them in touch with the top four, at least, and it seems more likely at this stage that Liverpool will improve and climb the table than Leicester will continue as the season’s surprise package.

“Leicester can do anything,” Klopp says, happier to talk about a neutral subject than put pressure on his own team. “I don’t see why they cannot win the league, they have put themselves in a good position.”

A couple more wins would put Liverpool in a good position too, though Klopp would prefer to get the wins first and talk about the league table later. “If I thought it would help to be thinking about winning the league I would start thinking about it at 6am every morning,” he said. “But it doesn’t help. It helps nil. It is not interesting.

“I have a little bit of experience with winning titles, not the biggest but a little. I know what helps and what doesn’t help, such as to talk about things over which you have no influence. We have to work, not dream. There is quite a big points difference between Liverpool and the top, Liverpool and fourth place even. Our job is to make that smaller, and that is what we will concentrate on doing.”

At the Etihad last week Klopp said his players seemed surprised at the interval by how well they had done in the first half against City, racing to a 3-0 lead in half an hour. If Klopp was surprised too – City are still most people’s favourites for the title – he hides it quite well. “I believe the opportunity exists in football to beat any team as long as you have time to train, time to think about it and time to make a plan,” he says. “You need a bit of luck too, which we had at City and at Chelsea.

“Why should I be surprised? I know things like this can happen. It is important that you feel in yourself how strong you can be. It’s not enough me being the only guy in Liverpool saying: ‘You are better than everybody else’. The players have to feel it too. That’s what we had at Manchester City, we spoke about it for days afterwards. But then we had to play the Bordeaux game with a completely different team and, OK, it was not as good. But we hadn’t trained so much with that team.

“What we really need is time to work together. Every session helps, we can still do more with these players. Manchester City was really good but it already feels like it was last year.”

Swansea must feel the same about that part of the season when results were going their way and Garry Monk was being tipped as a future manager of England. Should Swansea be looking to strengthen in the transfer window they will be doing so to ensure survival. Liverpool, however, may be looking for the key component, a striker perhaps, to turn a good season into a notable one. Yet Christian Benteke is now back and scoring again, and Roberto Firmino has been a revelation in the past few weeks and the manager who admired him in German football believes he can get better still. Klopp, as with everything else, is relaxed about the situation.

“As a club we talk about who might be available next summer, that’s normal,” he says. “But I only want players if we need them and at the moment I don’t feel it would help if we took five players. If you have three injuries in one position then you might have to take what you can get in January but we will not be buying anyone just because we can.”