German coach Juergen Klopp called on his Liverpool team, on Tuesday, to raise its level in a decisive week in its struggle to reach one of the first four places in the league that qualifies for the Champions League next season.
The “Reds” will face “Anfield” Wolverhampton in a postponed match from the seventh stage on Wednesday, after a disappointing negative draw against Crystal Palace last week.
It seemed that the two victories over Everton and Newcastle, by the same score, 2-0, restored confidence to the players of Coach Klopp, but the historic fall against Real Madrid, Spain, 2-5 in the first leg of the final price of the main continental competition, was a major moral blow to the club.
The loss against Wolverhampton 0-3 in the 22nd stage reflected the suffering that Liverpool is going through after the promises of a quadruple last season that ended in winning the League Cup and the local cup.
Liverpool, who has two deferred matches, ranks seventh in the Premier League with 36 points, 9 points behind Tottenham, who finished fourth and last to qualify for the Champions League, while Klopp is looking forward to turning the equation in his favor in the last 15 matches.
“It’s 45 points. It will be a really good moment (to go on a winning streak). Yes, you can imagine, that’s exactly what we want to do,” said the former Borussia Dortmund coach.
“It’s a very important week. We can’t ignore it. We have two home games. I want to give the season a little boost this week.”
And he added, “We got seven points from these three matches. The last match we drew in, and I know I said it was the same match we played before, but without scoring any goal…”, stressing, “We have to impose the matter as well, but we have to play and enjoy what we are doing.” This is really important.”
Despite Liverpool’s problems this season, there are similarities to the 2020-2021 season when they won eight and drew two of their last 10 matches to secure qualification for the Champions League.
“We have a lot of stories to tell of where things have gone so well in the last few years, with long winning streaks and unbeaten runs at home and so on,” said Klopp.
“History can’t hold us back but we can’t continually rely on the fact that we’ve done it before so we can do it again… We’re ready and if there’s a club that can do it, I really believe it’s us.”
Klopp received an additional dose of confidence with the return of Uruguayan striker Darwin Nunez, who was absent from Palace due to a shoulder injury, to training on Monday and is scheduled to participate on Wednesday. French center back Ibrahima Konate also returned to the squad after a month out due to a hamstring injury.
