Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has hit back at claims of Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho stating that it is an unfair battle with Liverpool for a place in the top-4. The Manchester United boss had earlier said that they have played 18 games more than the Reds, thus citing it as a reason for United’s struggles this season.
However, Jurgen Klopp has dismissed the comments stating that even Liverpool faced the same situation last season and it is part of football. But the boss sounded quite diplomatic in the way he responded to the claims, which deserves some credit.
Earlier, Mourinho had said,
“First of all, I think we have played 18 more matches than Liverpool. Eighteen more matches is like half of a Premier League, 18 matches are many miles in the players’ legs, so you can say that is an unfair fight. But we go for it, we fight, 24 matches in the Premier League is a lot, so the guys, they have amazing spirit and here we go again Sunday.”
These were Mourinho’s words after Thursday’s 0-0 stalemate against Manchester City. Surely, the frustration of ‘drawing’ the games has got into his head? Maybe.
However, Klopp was not in a mood to engage in a verbal battle with the ever so vocal Mourinho and chose to dismiss the claims by insisting that Liverpool faced the same scenario last time out.
Klopp said,
“No, it’s not unfair, it is the situation. Nobody asked us last year how we felt about it. I can imagine what he means when he says this but they have played a similar season to what we had last year. Obviously they also have a different squad, a wider squad, and with all of their injury problems they had so far they are still able to put out strong teams. You think: ‘Mkhitaryan isn’t playing? Rooney isn’t playing? And him, and him…’
“It is different but of course it’s hard. They have seven or eight games left – five in the Premier League, a semi-final and maybe a final. Yes that is hard, absolutely, But we had a similar situation last season.”
Liverpool’s fate isn’t in their own hands, but Klopp has urged his players not to concern themselves with results elsewhere and instead concentrate on winning their remaining 4 matches.
“We don’t have 100% influence on it. But it makes sense to focus on our own games and win as much as we can. It’s very interesting and exciting. We are in the middle of it and that’s good. We need to do our job another four times and then we will see. It (the Manchester derby) didn’t change a lot. It’s all about us. If we win against Watford we’ll be in third position again.”
Klopp rarely gets engaged in a war of words and his comments surely make sense as the number of games a team plays every season is down to their performances.
Maybe the Manchester United boss must focus more on handling his players well instead of lamenting Liverpool’s comfortable fixture list.
