Liverpool take on Southampton at home tomorrow in what will be new boss, Jurgen Klopp’s third game in charge. He will be fully intent to use the opportunity to grab his first win as Liverpool manager.
Despite having one of the most pessimistic fan-bases in the world, Liverpool’s Twitter was in a state of meltdown when Jurgen Klopp was announced. His appointment was the most shared in history on social media with his appointment at Liverpool being mentioned on various social media platforms over 70 million times.
His arrival at first Melwood and then Anfield has already left it’s mark with Klopp’s famed aggressive pressing style running Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham side into the ground. After only having a week with his new side in training he already demanded a ridiculous output from them with Liverpool totaling 166 kilometers. This is made all the more impressive when you consider that the average for the previous 8 games was 8 kilometers less. t will be something that the players will need to get used to as he will expect them to give more than ever. This is further illustrated by the sheer amount of sprints the Liverpool players made against Tottenham. From an average of 474 sprints from the first 8 games to 614.
“Is this new information? They have to close spaces for us. Don’t you say: ‘attacking begins far away’? – [attack is the best form of defence] If you do this in an intelligent way it makes it easier for the rest of the team. All strikers have to defend.” Klopp said this after being asked why he expect so much defensive output from his attackers.
Liverpool fans on Twitter have reacted in frustration after hearing for the umpteenth time that Daniel Sturridge will be absent through injury. Many have gone so far as to call it time and sell the injury-plagued forward and be rid of the problems that is presented with having a striker as prone to injury as he is. This is really put into perspective when you consider that Sturridge, a 26 year old, has played 96 league games and 20 year old, Raheem Sterling, has played 85 league games.
When Klopp was pressed about the Englishman’s availability he replied saying,“It’s not much better. With Daniel’s injury we have to see day-by-day.“If he can train tomorrow completely normal he’s an option.” Don’t get excited though, even if he trains he could knock his knee getting his car while leaving Melwood.
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“Of course we started to analyse Southampton this morning. Our pre-match we were together for an hour. I know much more about Southampton after I watched the game against Chelsea. Not too bad.
“We have to look at all our players after a very intense game. Obviously their strength is good organisation, they try to press high with six players and four stay a little bit deeper.
“We have to play football, if we can’t we have to play long balls, that’s what they do. They have Pelle.”
The Liverpool players will want to continue to give their boss their all when the face the Saints at Anfield on Sunday and secure the first three pints of the Klopp-Era. Key to this will be matching the athletic qualities of the Southampton side, much as they did against Tottenham about a week ago.