Klopp’s demand for title passion
JURGEN KLOPP called on his Liverpool side to resurrect their faltering title challenge with a “passionate” display against Watford at
Anfi eld on Wednesday.
A goalless draw against Manchester United yesterday saw Klopp’s side climb back to the top of the table a point ahead of Manchester City.
But Klopp, who appeared to describe the game as “****” when shaking hands with United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the end, maintained it was not a serious blow to their title hopes.
“It’s both [ a point gained and two points lost] but we have a point more which is good,” he said after their third draw in four league games.
“We expect more and we expect to play better football, of course. We wanted to win it but nothing serious happened today. Everything is equal again game- wise and now let’s play the rest of the season.
“Today was not brilliant but we have lost here more often than we draw. The only way we can do this [ respond] is with passion. Wednesday is another chance.”
Klopp conceded several of his side were not at their best including Mohamed Salah, who has scored just one goal in his last fi ve games in all competitions and was replaced with 11 minutes remaining.
“If we don’t win here we will learn from it. Not a lot of them were shining really
bright but there is another chance on Wednesday.
“Mo knows he can play better but it was only two weeks ago that he was like the stars from the sky. Lindelof and Shaw did a really good job.”
Solskjaer, right, was in full agreement about the quality of his side’s defensive display, particularly given they were hampered by hamstring injuries to Ander Herrera, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard.
Marcus Rashford was another who played on despite an ankle knock which Solskjaer expects will rule him out of at least one game. “Liverpool dominated the possession but we had the biggest chances so I don’t think it was a case of them not wanting to win the game, it was because they couldn’t get through,” he said.
“It is now four games in a row with clean sheets and I was very impressed with my team.
“Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong but in the second half we were magnificent.
“I’ve never seen the like of that before – three hamstrings in the first half. Rashy was kicked, did his ankle straight away and we should have taken him off as well – we played with 10 and a half. But Rashy’s attitude made up for it.
“I learned a lot about the players today – Scott McTominay was a Darren Fletcher for us, absolutely fantastic.
“Andreas has had critics lately but he’s had to come on and I thought he did fantastic.
“I was very impressed by my team: the attitude, the character we showed in adversity.”