WATCH: Liverpool not done with winning titles, warns Klopp

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said that his team will chase more silverware after securing its first league title in 30 years.

Published : Jun 26, 2020 20:03 IST

Liverpool sealed the Premier League title with seven games to spare after Manchester City lost to Chelsea on Friday.
Liverpool sealed the Premier League title with seven games to spare after Manchester City lost to Chelsea on Friday.
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Liverpool sealed the Premier League title with seven games to spare after Manchester City lost to Chelsea on Friday.

Liverpool is no longer burdened by its painful 30-year title drought and has written a new chapter in the club's history after it was confirmed as Premier League champion, manager Jurgen Klopp said on Friday.

The Anfield club, which dominated English football in the 1970s and 1980s, last won the old First Division title in 1990, but has finished as runners-up five times since.

Seven different managers have tried and failed to recapture Liverpool's long-lost domestic glory before Klopp arrived at Anfield in 2015 to -- in his own words -- turn the Merseyside club from “doubters into believers”.

“Without knowing it at the time, that was probably the most important thing I said to my players, that we have to create our own stories and history,” Klopp told Sky Sports.

“Meanwhile, the history is no burden anymore. The history is now our wonderful background, it's the basis for what we are doing.

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“When I came in we had to say, 'Don't compare us anymore with the fantastic people who played for this club and won everything in the past'. We needed to get the opportunity from our supporters to find our own way.”

-No need for a statue-

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A statue of Liverpool's legendary manager Bill Shankly stands outside the Anfield.
 

Klopp, who also delivered Liverpool's sixth Champions League crown last season, dismissed the idea of having a statue made in his honour, like former managers Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley, who have been cast in bronze outside Anfield.

“I don't want a statue that's not my motivation,” the German manager said. “It's clear the team are in a good moment, we are young enough to still go for something.

“It's a moment like last year's Champions League final, you carry on. It's good to be in this club at the moment.”

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Liverpool's next match is a trip to Manchester City next week and Klopp laughed at the idea of receiving a guard of honour from last year's champion as well as any other opponent it plays in its remaining games.

“We'll see, I don't think we can influence that,” he added. “We are champions and on the pitch we will behave as though we have never won anything before.”

-Hungry for more-

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Jurgen Klopp paid tribute to some of the Liverpool's famous sons of the past after the club won its maiden Premier League title in three decades.
 

Klopp said that his team will not be satisfied with silverware it had won over the past two seasons.

“The consistency the boys showed really is so exceptional that I cannot describe it and we will not stop, we will not stop,” he told reporters on a video conference call.

“We really have to - and will - stay focused, we see the opportunity... but 'will not stop' doesn't mean we will win everything, we just want to improve.”

But the German, who won the Champions League with Liverpool last season, said there was no guarantee of further glory.

“The other teams, they are really good already and will be better, City is absolutely exceptional. So, I cannot promise we will win everything but I can promise we will try everything to improve,” he said.

“That is possible because there are football parts we can improve, of course. The consistency is difficult to improve, if we can keep that level of consistency that would be already really nice. But we are in a good place, that is why we are here.”

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Last season, Liverpool lost one game and earned 97 points but could finish only second to Pep Guardiola's City and Klopp said that showed there was little room for error.

“We knew, if you want to win the league it is pretty much not allowed to lose any game because City are usually not losing games. They never stop since Pep is there, never stop and we will try that as well, we will try not to stop, to improve and make things happen and make them special,” the German said.

“We didn't do more, we did it again. I am not sure it was possible to do more, from a training and intensity point of view, we were already squeezing everything out.”

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