Liverpool need to take a point or more from their visit to Stamford Bridge this afternoon in order to secure their place in the top four, leave the rest of the season free to concentrate on the Champions League final and give Jürgen Klopp a break from answering stupid questions.
The German has become adept at either widening his eyes or letting his jaw drop in response to some of the inanities that come his way during media duties, though to his credit he usually manages a reasoned answer. “Yes of course it is important to this club to play in the Champions League next season,” he said slowly, as if examining the query for a catch it did not contain. “We are strong enough to compete against the very best teams in Europe so that is what we want to do. We are ready for this challenge.”
Clearly it is not only Sybil Fawlty who specialises in the bleedin’ obvious, though Klopp was not being flippant and neither should his reply be dismissed lightly. How many other English clubs could currently say the same?
In under three seasons at Anfield Klopp has turned the club into a force in Europe to such an extent that clubs with bigger budgets and more experienced squads – Chelsea and the two Manchester sides, say – ought to be vaguely embarrassed.
Since he was last in the Champions League final, with Borussia Dortmund in 2013, no Premier League side has gone as far, and now he is back with a club that managed qualification only twice in the previous eight seasons.
Klopp’s Liverpool are strong in a way that few sides from this country have been in Europe since Manchester United were in their pomp. When Chelsea became the last English winners of the Champions League in 2012 they were a fading force, not really hitting the heights they threatened under José Mourinho or (briefly) Guus Hiddink.
United went to the 2009 and 2011 finals as clear underdogs and were duly humbled twice by Barcelona. Those versions of Chelsea and United were certainly not sides others were hoping to avoid in the draw, which is what Liverpool have just become.
After seeing what they managed against the English champions and the last Italian side in the contest, even a team of Real Madrid’s pedigree and experience will be careful not to make any assumptions. Klopp has turned Mohamed Salah into a Ballon d’Or candidate, made Manchester City think twice about the wisdom of letting James Milner go, reinvigorated his back-line options with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson and, perhaps most impressively of all, compensated for the loss of Philippe Coutinho by making the team revolve around the outstanding Roberto Firmino.
Klopp has bought well, built a side that can hurt just about anyone and he has not yet finished. Naby Keïta arrives from RB Leipzig in the summer – Liverpool might even take him as a guest to the Champions League final in Kiev – and Klopp expects to make one or two more signings before the start of next season.
“Naby has the quality to have a big effect on the team immediately he arrives,” the manager said of the Guinea midfielder. “He is not playing the World Cup so he will have a full pre-season with us, which will help him a lot. We will probably sign a couple more players in summer because we need more depth in the squad.
“To bring in players who are 200% better than what we have will be difficult but we had a problem when Coutinho left and Adam Lallana and then Emre Can became injured. You can never remove all injury risk and the boys still did brilliantly, but of course we will try to strengthen the squad because that’s how it is.”
Klopp is refusing all invitations to get carried away by the achievement of taking Liverpool to an eighth European Cup final – “I am not interested in reaching finals, I am more interested in winning them” – though he will admit that one of the reasons he would prefer to strengthen rather than stand still is because the English league is so tough. “I do think this is the hardest league,” he said. “The intensity is hard, the fixture schedule is hard. In England every team fights for everything every week.
“If there is a reason why English teams have not been doing so well in Europe I would say that is the most important one. I have spoken about this before and I am not looking to complain or make excuses but I think we all know that the schedule you give to your teams is not made for being successful in summer.”
