Klopp: If you do not limit yourself with bad thoughts you can fly

[TLW]

Jurgen Klopp says his squad are a major believer in the power of positivity and were focused on who was playing rather than those who were absent through injury as Liverpool produced a outstanding second half display to overwhelm Luton 4-1 at Anfield on Wednesday night.

 

Already without Alisson, Dominik Szoboszlai and Trent Alexander-Arnold before the weekend, the Reds then lost Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota to injuries that will see them miss weeks and possibly months of action.

 

And with the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea on Sunday, no risks were taken with Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez and Ibrahima Konate, the latter being a unused substitute while the two forwards were given the night off to rest any slight niggles they may have had.

 

It meant the front three had an unfamiliar look to normal with Harvey Elliott linking up with Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz.

 

 

In a further example of Liverpool’s depth being tested, this starting lineup had an average age of 25 years and 68 days - the club's youngest since February 2018 while Liverpool's bench had five players aged 19 or under, with 16-year-old midfielder Trey Nyoni among the substitutes.

 

Not surprisingly, it took a period of time to gel and Liverpool as a whole looked far from themselves in a very scratchy first 45 minutes where the visitors led through Chiedozie Ogbene.

 

Klopp has been known throughout his tenure for his ability to truly inspire his players at the half time interval  by keeping positive and thinking that they can turn around any deficit if they believe.

 

 

This was the sixth time during this campaign that they have turned a deficit into all three points.

 

Speaking after the win which restored Liverpool’s four point gap over Man City, Klopp cited an iconic victory which saw those memories personally flooding back (per the Official site.)

 

“I will mention this game quite a few times, to be honest. I promised my team a few months ago probably I will never mention or use the Barcelona game [in 2019] again as an example – and I used it today again, so I broke my promise. Just because before the game it was kind of similar: many players missing, stuff like this. If the team that played that night against Barcelona would have stuck to the knowledge of who was missing.

 

 

“This team (on that night) ignored the fact who was missing and I want us to ignore the fact [of] who is missing. That’s difficult because the public got the knowledge of the whole amount of players missing only tonight.

 

“It’s like, ‘Oh…’ I needed a few minutes to process it when I got all the news but from the moment on when you know how you can deal with it, how you can sort it for this game now, it feels really good.

 

“That’s what I wanted the boys to show and this is an example tonight, this is now their Barcelona, [it] was against Luton – a difficult situation, plenty of reasons to give up in moments, ‘Yeah, not tonight.’ And I saw only a super group fighting. If you don’t limit yourself with bad thoughts, you can fly. And that’s what the boys did."

 

With the cup final clearly now in the forefront of his mind, Klopp is taking nothing for granted on the injury front.

 

“Obviously for us there are now a lot of super-important games coming up, and we don’t know, we go day by day. I cannot say anything about it and I don’t know. But after Brentford I had no clue the situation would be like it was now. So, let’s see. There’s one phrase that stands: as long as we have 11, we will go for it. That’s all I can promise.”

 

 

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[Barrington Womble]

It's that positive perspective that I think makes us the top end of competitive. We have had great teams, but the quality of the fringe players has at time not been the best or we haven't had enough, but he runs a squad where they all believe they're fighting and they all believe they're good enough.

 

That game against Luton (and there's been countless before), we'd have probably lost under pretty much all of our managers since our heyday in those circumstances. While some of his tactical brilliance contributed at half time, the fact he could pull that level of performance out of the team is testament to the belief he has given them all. 

 

This has also been true over the years with transfers. When people think he's happy with the hand dealt to him over the years, I have never believed it was to do with him being happy, it was to do with him accepting no excuses. When the club have given him the opportunity to spend over the years he's taken it. When they haven't, he's taken that too and talked about what the squad can do, rather than what it can't. And that creates no hiding spaces for anyone. 

 

And I think this is why he hates talking about injuries. His view is they're injured, he can't change it, but let's talk about the players who can still make a difference. 

 

All of these gains in terms of attitude in seasons like this are probably worth 10 points or more per year compared to anyone else in the league. 

[Smell The Glove]

32 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

It's that positive perspective that I think makes us the top end of competitive. We have had great teams, but the quality of the fringe players has at time not been the best or we haven't had enough, but he runs a squad where they all believe they're fighting and they all believe they're good enough.

 

That game against Luton (and there's been countless before), we'd have probably lost under pretty much all of our managers since our heyday in those circumstances. While some of his tactical brilliance contributed at half time, the fact he could pull that level of performance out of the team is testament to the belief he has given them all. 

 

This has also been true over the years with transfers. When people think he's happy with the hand dealt to him over the years, I have never believed it was to do with him being happy, it was to do with him accepting no excuses. When the club have given him the opportunity to spend over the years he's taken it. When they haven't, he's taken that too and talked about what the squad can do, rather than what it can't. And that creates no hiding spaces for anyone. 

 

And I think this is why he hates talking about injuries. His view is they're injured, he can't change it, but let's talk about the players who can still make a difference. 

 

All of these gains in terms of attitude in seasons like this are probably worth 10 points or more per year compared to anyone else in the league. 

This is also why he gets so pissed off with moans and groans from the crowd. His belief, and rightly so, is what good is that going to do. In the ground he wants only positivity. Save it for the pub.

[Barrington Womble]

6 hours ago, Smell The Glove said:

This is also why he gets so pissed off with moans and groans from the crowd. His belief, and rightly so, is what good is that going to do. In the ground he wants only positivity. Save it for the pub.

 

I get that. But don't see it like that though . I'm not much of a moaner when things are bad, I tend more.to go quiet, as I think is the general thing at anfield.  But you can't expect the crowd to be emotional then choose to take the emotion away when it suits you - can we only be emotional when it's positive please. That quickly stops being emotional and becomes a drone like many European stadia.

 

Anfield is a cauldron but it comes from emotion in the gut. When the game is flat, the fans are often flat, but a small amount can be moaning. People endlessly talk about how anfield makes a difference. I don't think silence or the moans and groans is helpful. But when the crowd flips, like it does on many am occasion, it creates something that while I personally don't think it's  unique, many seasoned observers think it is. Barely a top manager of my lifetime has not referenced the anfield crowd and I don't hear that of very many other places. And for the moaning, we probably moan less than most. Klopp's just unlucky his seat is in front of the moan stand. 

[Smell The Glove]

39 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

 

I get that. But don't see it like that though . I'm not much of a moaner when things are bad, I tend more.to go quiet, as I think is the general thing at anfield.  But you can't expect the crowd to be emotional then choose to take the emotion away when it suits you - can we only be emotional when it's positive please. That quickly stops being emotional and becomes a drone like many European stadia.

 

Anfield is a cauldron but it comes from emotion in the gut. When the game is flat, the fans are often flat, but a small amount can be moaning. People endlessly talk about how anfield makes a difference. I don't think silence or the moans and groans is helpful. But when the crowd flips, like it does on many am occasion, it creates something that while I personally don't think it's  unique, many seasoned observers think it is. Barely a top manager of my lifetime has not referenced the anfield crowd and I don't hear that of very many other places. And for the moaning, we probably moan less than most. Klopp's just unlucky his seat is in front of the moan stand. 

I know what you are saying and you are coming from how we see the games as fans. My post was coming purely from a Klopp perspective. 

 

Take midweek for example when Harvey over hit the pass 1st half and the groans were audible. Klopp sees that as a young lad hearing moans and not wanting him to go into his shell, which to be fair to Harvey he never does but maybe somebody else will. He doesn't want that in the ground. Now we both know that 60k of people are not all going to be head up lad, a lot are going to be for fucks sake. Klopp is the embodiment of positivity. I've actually never seen a fella like him. I always remember the title celebrations in a fucking empty stadium and Klopp seriously going above and beyond to make it something special. He thinks for 90 minutes it should be non stop roaring the lads on, and it should, but we both know in reality that's not going to happen.

[VladimirIlyich]

49 minutes ago, Smell The Glove said:

I know what you are saying and you are coming from how we see the games as fans. My post was coming purely from a Klopp perspective. 

 

Take midweek for example when Harvey over hit the pass 1st half and the groans were audible. Klopp sees that as a young lad hearing moans and not wanting him to go into his shell, which to be fair to Harvey he never does but maybe somebody else will. He doesn't want that in the ground. Now we both know that 60k of people are not all going to be head up lad, a lot are going to be for fucks sake. Klopp is the embodiment of positivity. I've actually never seen a fella like him. I always remember the title celebrations in a fucking empty stadium and Klopp seriously going above and beyond to make it something special. He thinks for 90 minutes it should be non stop roaring the lads on, and it should, but we both know in reality that's not going to happen.

The demographic of the crowd has obviously changed. The average age of a PL season ticket holder was mid forties about 15-20 years ago and if those people still go they will not be as vocal as they once were. The younger crowd have seen mixed fortunes and want instant gratification while the day trippers just want the experience of a PL matchday. This alongside the many locals who have been lost due to price hikes and family commitments makes it difficult to inspire them without it coming from the pitch and the bench. Klopp has been wonderful doing this while others haven't.

[Kevin D]

He sounds pissed up.

[KMD7]

[Barrington Womble]

2 hours ago, VladimirIlyich said:

The demographic of the crowd has obviously changed. The average age of a PL season ticket holder was mid forties about 15-20 years ago and if those people still go they will not be as vocal as they once were. The younger crowd have seen mixed fortunes and want instant gratification while the day trippers just want the experience of a PL matchday. This alongside the many locals who have been lost due to price hikes and family commitments makes it difficult to inspire them without it coming from the pitch and the bench. Klopp has been wonderful doing this while others haven't.

 

I've just moved from the kop. But I was 24 when they sat us in there. Nearly 30 years later, it was exactly the same people. We all moan more as we get older, pretty much our entire stadium as just 30 years older than it used to be. There's very few young ones who are coming through and those who do, many are like you describe. 

[Bobby Hundreds]

Nice quote Jurgen... someone tell R Kelly!

[Elite]

Well it turns out Jürgen was wrong. I jumped from my bedroom window and am now in hospital with two broken femurs, three broken ribs and severe psychological trauma.

 

Cunt.

[Jairzinho]