Jurgen Klopp is eager to avoid “complete bollocks” headlines pertaining to Man City and Liverpool’s title coronation after it was delayed following the draw at Everton.
Many had viewed, and hoped, that Liverpool’s matchup against Crystal Palace would present the chance to officially secure the Premier League title at Anfield.
However, the stalemate against Everton coupled with Man City’s thrashing of Burnley ensured it was no longer possible as five points are still required.
It could, however, be confirmed as early as Thursday should two things happen: Liverpool pick up three points against Palace and Man City fail to beat Chelsea on Thursday evening.
If not, the next opportunity would come against Pep Guardiola’s side on July 2 – where either a draw or win for Klopp’s men would be enough to bring the 30-year wait to an official end, and it would also set a new record for the earliest title win with six games remaining.
Should the title not be wrapped up this week, there will be a further seven-day wait until the Reds are back in action at City and despite external talk of the ‘unthinkable’ of the Reds relinquishing their 20-point lead, Klopp was not entertaining such notions.
His faith and confidence in his side is unwavering, as it should be, and he was eager to stress that should not be misconstrued for a lack of respect for City with “completely bollocks” headlines.
“I don’t analyse City now, I don’t think about City. I’m completely in the Crystal Palace game, I don’t know about destiny too much – we have to play football games and we love that by the way,” Klopp told reporters during his pre-match press conference.
“And if we win all the other teams can do what they want they cannot catch us, so we don’t have to think too much about it, we just have to play football.
“It’s not about catching or whatever, I didn’t finish that season before we started so it’s now 20 points we have as an advantage. The only thing I realised when I watched the game last night is how is it possible that anybody is 20 points ahead of this team?
“It’s pretty much unthinkable, but we must have done a couple of things really well that we can have the situation but I don’t think about City can catch us or whatever, I think about Palace.
“If you are not with us you make something bad of this, what I said and make a big headline of it, ‘City cannot catch up’ or whatever that’s complete bollocks because that’s not what I said. What I mean is I’m only concerned about what we are doing in the next game and not what City are doing.
“I watch them and respect them a lot, I’ve said that plenty of times and yes they look like they will win all the games they still have because they look really strong, but that’s all. They were always strong, we are not so bad so let’s think about that.”
And while Klopp would like to wrap up the title as swiftly as possible as it means Liverpool have won games and the onslaught of questions will end, he is not overly “bothered” about the when.
“I thought it would be a cool thing to be a champion with Liverpool one day, when this will be I don’t have a lot of influence, we try to improve day by day, month by month and year by year and it worked somehow,” he added.
“Now we are in the best possible situation to do it. Whenever it will happen this season I am not too much bothered about, to be honest.
“Of course, I would like to do it as early as possible just because it would mean we would win the next two games, that’s the only reason for it.
“Apart from that, from a historical point of view looking back I don’t think a lot of people will look back at when it happened, was it matchday 32, 33 or 34? That’s not too important.
“I don’t see it like this, it would be nice if we win it [as soon as possible] then I won’t have to answer questions on it! We are really fine with the situation. The first game back, the derby, was pretty special because these games have a specific history.
“We are fine with our start. Not overly happy, but now we have the second game. It would be cool if we could just play our game on the highest level.”
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