Liverpool manager wants to win all their remaining matches but agrees that they need help from others as well to book a top four spot.
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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has conceded that winning all their remaining games alone might not be enough as they also need help from other teams to book a Champions League spot. The Reds are currently in sixth place – seven points shy of fourth-placed Chelsea – but have two games in hand in the Premier League. One of those games is against Manchester United on Thursday at Old Trafford. They were supposed to play the Red Devils more than a week ago but the match was postponed owing to fans’ protests.
In the meantime, Manchester City have won the league title, courtesy of Leicester City beating Manchester United 2-1 on Tuesday. When Klopp was subsequently asked about the gap Liverpool will have to close to City next season, he replied, “My concern this year is not the gap, like I don’t think [about] we created a pretty big gap last year between us and other teams. We always knew that doesn’t mean we are now 20-odd points better than other teams.”
“We have to win football games next year. And City is not the only challenge. Chelsea looks, I said when Thomas [Tuchel] arrived there: this squad is a present. And together with Thomas, obviously it works out pretty well. If you look at the squad, they can make 11 changes and you think, ‘Oops, that’s a proper team.’
“They will go for it next year definitely, they will not get worse. That’s a fact. United are in a good way. So, it’s not about who is far away or whatever. It means just you have to win your own football games and that’s possible.”
Conceding that this season has been difficult, Klopp said they will not shift the blame on to others. “Our season was really difficult but we don’t close our eyes from the facts. We know five or six points more for us, even in a season with the injuries we had, we should have in the moment. We know that,” he added.
“That means we don’t blame anybody else but ourselves because then we would be closer to the Champions League spots, then we have four games to go, a proper chance, all these kinds of things. Now we need help from other teams; obviously we have to win our own games but we need help as well. That’s not the situation you want to be in, but it’s the best we could get and now we deal with that.”
