Jurgen Klopp was asked very few questions on Crystal Palace in his press conference ahead of Wednesday night’s clash at Anfield, instead fielding many on the title.
The Reds are back at Anfield for the first time in 106 days on Wednesday night, with the Kop filled with banners as the club gets used to matchdays without supporters.
It will be a much different atmosphere, as Sunday’s Merseyside derby proved, but the ultimate prize is at stake for Liverpool, as they aim to pick up a win that—if Man City lose to Chelsea the next night—could clinch the title.
The notion of ‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’ does not concern Klopp, however, with the manager eager to avoid “complete bollocks” of headlines on Liverpool winning the Premier League at this point.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday, he addressed the prospect of playing in an empty Anfield, and insisted his side would still enjoy home advantage.
“It will be very different, but I only think about this when I get asked about it,” he explained.
“We’ve trained for four weeks, a bit more now, we were in lockdown before for an awful lot of time.
“So that means we knew it, we knew [the crowd] would not be there.
“My rule for is that things I cannot change, I don’t really think about, and that’s how it is.
“Yes, football is not the same without supporters, 100 percent. Football could not be a game without supporters, if they were never there, 100 percent.
“But in this moment it is only a period where we have to play without supporters, so we have to make the best of it.
“The derby is a good example of that. It was maybe not the best football game you’ve ever seen, but from an intensity point of view it was the same as the other derbies were.
“We didn’t play like we played because there were no supporters, we took it like it is.
“So we don’t think about it anymore. It will be the first game at Anfield [without fans], but it’s still a home game because we have our dressing room, we have all our things around, we know exactly where everything is.
“That feels already good when you walk into the dugout, or in the dressing room area. It’s a home game and that’s what we want to see on the pitch as well, of course.
“In the end, no crowd, no atmosphere, we have to take that, but the derby, to me, looked like a proper football game.
“There was nothing different [on the pitch], but of course it is completely different.”
Klopp also gave an update on the fitness of his squad, with Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson back in contention to start, but James Milner and Joel Matip are both ruled out due to injury.
And he expressed a desire for the Man City game, with its venue still to be confirmed, to be played at the Etihad.
The trip to City is scheduled for July 2, and a decision should be made over where it will be played on Thursday.
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