Klopp: No extra pressure amid talk Liverpool is back on its perch

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp shrugged off talk the European champions were back on their perch.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp

Jurgen Klopp insisted there was "no extra pressure" on Liverpool after chief executive Peter Moore said the Premier League giant was back on its perch.

Earlier this week, Moore said the European champions was back on its perch, referencing former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson.

But Klopp, whose side visit Sheffield United in the Premier League on Saturday, shrugged off the talk, saying he did not even know what a perch was.

"No, absolutely no extra pressure, not at all," the Liverpool manager told UK media.

"I heard about it but I don't even understand about perch so for me it is not a big thing to be honest.

"We are all adults and we say things and sometimes people have to deal with things that I say, and in this case people seem to think I have to deal with things Peter said.

"But I'm not angry about him. I like Peter. He said that and for me it is nothing because I don't even know the word perch. It is no problem at all.

"If people come to me constantly and tell me 'are you still on the perch or not?' I still won't understand what the word perch means."

Champions of Europe, Liverpool holds an early five-point lead in the Premier League ahead of its trip to Bramall Lane.

Liverpool are coming off a 2-0 EFL Cup win over MK Dons as midfielder Naby Keita made his first start of the season after his injury woes.

Klopp said it was important for the club to be cautious with Keita, who made 16 Premier League starts in his maiden campaign at Liverpool in 2018-19.

"It is very important [to keep him fit]," Klopp said. "Pep [Lijnders, assistant] needed to remind that it was agreed with me before the game that he should only play 60 minutes. So we took him off when it looked like he could go longer in that game.

"We have to be really sensitive in that situation because, obviously, [the injury] came all of a sudden. He was injured in the summer break during the Africa Cup of Nations and then came back and he was injured again.

"We have to be really careful. It's a similar situation to Alisson but the team is doing so well there is no rush to bring him in."