Jurgen Klopp is aiming to build on Liverpool’s first Premier League title win with more honours, with his “we will not stop” mantra beginning with a new record points haul.
The Reds are now champions of England, and have a week to celebrate with their next game not until July 2, with the trip to Man City.
But their focus will not waver beyond a short break, with Klopp setting his sights on further success in the near future, as he told reporters in his title-winning press conference.
He laid out the club’s objectives for the years ahead, insisting “we will not stop” as they aim to improve and stave off the renewed challenges of the likes of City and Chelsea.
“The last 13 months, around about, were pretty special for us. That’s true, that’s absolutely true,” he reflected.
“And I would like the involve the year before as well, because it was just an incredible football time in my life, to be honest.
“Winning that amount of games, getting this amount of points is absolutely exceptional.
“I didn’t experience it before, honestly. I had good parts throughout my career, but not that good. So I couldn’t be more thankful to be a part of that.
“The consistency the boys really showed is so exceptional I cannot describe it. And we will not stop. That’s it.
“We will not stop and have to, and will, stay focused, because we see the opportunity.
“But ‘will not stop’ doesn’t mean that we will win everything, we just want to improve. Because the other teams, they are really good already and will be better.
“I cannot promise that we’ll win something; I can promise that we’ll try everything to improve.”
Liverpool clinched the title having won 28 of their 31 games so far, drawing two and losing just once, which is an incredible feat given the strength of the competition.
And Klopp looked to maintain that attitude as he stressed that the Reds must push forward, beginning with a return to Melwood for pre-City training on Saturday.
“If you want to win the league it’s pretty much not allowed to lose any game, because City is usually not losing football games,” he continued.
“They’ve never stopped since Pep is there, they’ve never stopped. We will try that as well, we will try not to stop.
“We will try to improve, we will try to make things happen, we will try to make things special.
“This is now only a moment, today we sit here and talk about it, tomorrow we train and we prepare for the City game.
“It’s still a nice moment, but we have seven games to go and we want to play our best football in these games, and hopefully we can do that.”
Including the trip to the Etihad, Liverpool play their final seven games over the space of 25 days, or one every 3.6 days, which is a gruelling schedule that they are now used to.
City set the record points tally for a single season in the English top flight in 2017/18, with 100, and if they are to break that record, Klopp knows the Reds must be prepared for a “hard fight.”
“We have big dreams, and we’ve always had them. That doesn’t mean that we can fulfil them, but I think we should give them a proper try,” he said.
‘That’s what we did since we are here together. Not more, and it will never be less.
“The more people dream, the more important and stronger it gets, so of course, without the players buying into this kind of philosophy, I have no chance.
“So yes, we will not stop. We have to show that on the pitch, obviously, and I think [if we play] two games with a little bit less here or there all of you will tell us ‘that’s not the Liverpool from last year’ or whatever.
“It’s OK to try so that these questions will never come up, that we maybe show you that it’s possible to do things like this even longer, not only one year, not only two years.
“Because if you really go into detail, then you’ll see that we’ve been doing that already for three or four years.
“We try to squeeze everything out; it didn’t work out always, but the intensity level was never less, it was just not as successful.
“Now the mix is really good, the boys are in a good age group, the boys are more experienced, more confident, more convinced, all that stuff, and we should use that as long as we can.
“But we know that other teams are there and want to do and will do maybe not exactly the same, but a lot to improve their situation.
“That will be a hard fight, but that’s how the Premier League is, it’s a hard fight every weekend, or every three days.”
Fan Comments