The Liverpool boss discussed Manchester City, the title race, Arsenal and provided an update on Mohammed Salah’s injury and contract talks as well as team news as he faced the press on Tuesday morning.
Manchester City
Klopp was quick to address once again that his side are solely focusing on themselves and not Manchester City as they aim to reach the summit of the Premier League table.
“It [City’s draw with Palace] would impact the mood of us if in our minds we were in competition with City
“I don’t know how you can think it’s 1 point already [the gap between the two sides] when we have to go to Arsenal
“It’s four points and we have to play this game, but if you want to reach something in this Premier League and you are not top of the table, you will need to win all your games and sometimes you need the other teams to drop points”.
Title Race
The Liverpool manager has his eyes set on the Premier League title and leapfrogging the current Champions but understands the quality the Manchester outfit has.
“It’s the plan to be very annoying, but we have to win our football games
“We are very ambitious and determined to do great stuff but we respect a lot how good they [Manchester City] are.”
Mo Salah injury update
Salah appeared to suffer a foot injury in Liverpool’s 2-0 win against Brighton on Saturday and was forced to come off in replace of Diogo Jota.
But Klopp is hopeful to have Liverpool’s top goal scorer ready for their trip to the capital to face Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal.
“Mo is a tough cookie, I got a message before the press conference that Mo is ready to train, we will see now how that looks.”
Salah’s contract
Talks are still ongoing regarding the future of Salah, with Klopp also stating he was unaware over Salah’s agent laughing at his contract claims on Twitter last week.
“I am not concerned. It is how it should be. The decisive parties are in contact. The last thing I want to do is create headlines.
“No it’s all fine – I don’t know about any reactions. I’m not on twitter, another good reason for that. You got me in the trap, and I created headlines.”
Praise for Arteta’s Arsenal
Ahead of what will be a very tough match for the Reds, Jurgen Klopp was full of praise for the team Arteta has built.
“They have a clear structure, a clear idea, they have a really good team.
“It’s young, full of talent, full of joy, an experienced striker in Lacazette with three very exciting young boys behind him
“Yet Smith Rowe isn’t even in, so on top of that there’s other guys, it’s really interesting.”
Team News
After missing the Reds’ trip to the Amex Stadium last weekend, Ibrahima Konate has returned to full training but Klopp confirms James Milner and Kostas Tskimikas are both out with illness.