Jurgen Klopp urges Liverpool to use 'wonderful base' for Premier League run-in
Liverpool and Manchester City's titanic battle for the Premier League title is "exciting," according to Reds boss Jurgen Klopp.
Published : Mar 27, 2019 19:26 IST
Jurgen Klopp has challenged his Liverpool players to use the "wonderful base" they have given themselves as they bid to win a first league title in 29 years.
The Reds sit two points ahead of Manchester City at the Premier League summit but Pep Guardiola's side does have a game in hand — a rescheduled Manchester derby at Old Trafford on April 24 — due to its progress to the semifinals of the FA Cup.
City travels to Fulham on Saturday as action in England's top flight resumes following the international break, while Liverpool hosts Tottenham in a mouth-watering clash at Anfield a day later.
'Exciting'
Liverpool also has a Champions League quarterfinal against Porto to look forward to and Klopp has urged his side to take advantage of the platform its superb season has provided for it in the closing weeks of the campaign. "It is exciting, absolutely," he told Liverpool's official website.
"That's what we were always talking about — a season is like that, you constantly prepare a basis for the final weeks. We are now in the final weeks and there will be no interruption anymore, there will only be game after game after game and they all are very, very important.
"On the one side, opponents fight for the Champions League spots, and on the other, they will fight to stay in the league. I think only Wolves in the last match, they are not fighting for Champions League and not fighting to stay in the league, but we all see what shape they are in — and they can go to the FA Cup final, so that's exciting for them. But these are our opponents.
'Each game is a final'
"Champions League, we don't have to talk about that because they are all finals, each game is a final. Hopefully we can stay in that competition for a while. We created a wonderful base, now let's use it."
Liverpool racked up consecutive wins over Burnley, Bayern Munich and Fulham before the international break and Klopp concedes that he was frustrated that the games did not keep coming thick and fast. "It is nice to have a little bit of a rest in between, but on the other hand you want to keep it going in a situation like that," he added.
"We won three games in one week and could have played pretty much the next day."