Liverpool Players Must Forget Our CL Success – Klopp

Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp has said his club must avoid basking in the euphoria of winning the UCL if they are to challenge for titles this upcoming season.

Liverpool battle Premier League champions, Manchester City in the Community Shield tomorrow after defeating Tottenham to claim their sixth European Cup last season.

Klopp is not scared of his boys becoming complacent, but feels they must forget their past success and focus on the fresh season.

His words, “The players aren’t the problem. How would they change in four or five weeks?”

“The new situation is that it was a big achievement for the club, a big achievement for each individual. They had a completely different summer.

“Everybody is talking to you about it. If you win something then everybody feels the need to tell you first of all congratulations, then where they watched, how they felt, how their family felt, how their friends felt, how their dog felt.

“It’s all nice but of course it keeps you in that moment. I want to be completely focused on the new season from a specific point. That’s the one thing.

“When we said we have to get rid of the backpack of the history of the club so we can make a step in the right direction, we have to make sure our own history – even though it’s a very good one – doesn’t keep us in that moment.

“That’s very important. We will do that, but we have to learn it. Nobody gives you a book that you can read about how to deal with a Champions League win.”

He also said City are favorites to win the PL again, “Because they’ve won the league twice in a row. That’s one reason,” he said. “Ours was the first year on that level. We have to prove we can be on that level again. That’s how it is.

“The 97 points were no coincidence but it’s not like we outplayed all the teams, like we shot them out of the stadium constantly. We needed tied games, close games a lot. We were a real result machine last year, it was really, really impressive.

“The champions are favourites. They didn’t lose a player – they have lost Kompany, sorry, and brought in another one. I knew they would do something [in the transfer market].

“If somebody asks if we’re favourites in the Champions League we probably couldn’t deny it. We don’t think it’s like this, but then we are in the final twice in a row so obviously we know the way to the final. Does that mean we will be in the final again? It doesn’t mean it, but it’s possible.”