Jurgen Klopp discussed potential outgoings, injuries and goalscoring competition ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Crystal Palace on Monday night.
The Reds travel to Selhurst Park for their second game of the new campaign, with their first away trip providing a tough test of their credentials.
But having blown away West Ham last weekend, Klopp’s side can be confident of a strong performance on the road against Roy Hodgson’s Palace.
A two-goal haul for Sadio Mane served as a key positive on Sunday, with the Senegalese outshining both Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino at Anfield.
But speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon the manager insisted “it’s not about having a competition between strikers, it’s about really loving working together.”
“It’s a completely different game [on Monday]. We need to make sure we’re really ready for that, after all the positive stories in the week,” he said.
“People still aren’t used to good football from us—when you’re good it’s like ‘you’re unbelievable!’.
“We need to learn to stay positive, but to stay angry as well. Don’t celebrate the whole week until next Monday.
“We can do that in training, but I said it in a meeting with the boys: if you are good, journalists are overly excited. But we have to work and not to do these things.”
Liverpool will once again come up against a familiar foe in the shape of Christian Benteke on Monday, as one of many ex-Reds including Hodgson himself.
And Klopp stressed that, despite the Belgian’s difficult campaign last time out, he will be a major threat in a “well-organised” Palace side.
“Everyone writing Christian Benteke off would [be making] a mistake. Even if he didn’t score a lot last season, there are always opportunities,” he explained.
“It’s a big challenge to defend set-pieces when Christian is around.
“Jordan Ayew played a really good season at Swansea, they got relegated but maybe the best I’ve seen of him in the last few years.
“It’s a good team. No spectacular transfers, Zaha [signing a new deal] is a good one. Roy calmed the situation down in a difficult moment. Now they start really playing football.
“It’s nice to see. Not nice for us for Monday, but we only go there to win the game, that’s clear.”
Klopp also discussed Ragnar Klavan‘s move to Cagliari, Joe Gomez‘s new role at centre-back and the possibility of further outgoings, as he prepares his side to aim for another three points.
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