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Champions League final, Tottenham vs Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp says it is 'silly' to judge managers by trophies

Liverpool manager can win first major honour for club in Madrid on Saturday

Mark Critchley
Madrid
Saturday 01 June 2019 07:54 BST
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Champions League final: Jurgen Klopp

Jurgen Klopp has said it is “silly” to judge managers on trophies and that Liverpool’s excellent 2018-19 season will stay with him forever, regardless of whether it ends with victory in the Champions League final.

One of the best Liverpool sides in years is at risk of ending the year with nothing to show for their efforts, after a 97-point Premier League season only proved enough to finish as runners-up behind Manchester City.

Anything but a win against Tottenham Hotspur at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid on Saturday night will see Klopp’s side end another year trophyless and prolong his own, four-year long wait to win a first major honour with Liverpool.

Mauricio Pochettino, his Tottenham counterpart, is in a similar predicament. The Argentine nothing silver to show for almost five years of steady, demonstrable progress in north London.

For one the wait will end, for the other it will go on. But Klopp believes that those outside of football attach too much importance to winning trophies, when clubs and coaches work with different resources and expectations.

“The thing is, you – the outside world – it is your right to judge us by what we win and what we don’t win,” the Liverpool manager, who has lost all of his last six finals, said.

“Look back in 20 years and nobody will talk about our brilliant season unless another team comes close to 97 points, or has more or less. Then yes, we maybe [will be] mentioned again, but nobody will really speak about that.

“But for me, as a person, it will stay forever. I will probably have 20 or 30 years career as a manager and then it is easy to remember it. I can really respect that and that is probably what Poch is like as well.

“The outside world is like this and we have to accept that. But to judge a coach by what he is winning is a silly thing because we all have different circumstances. We all have different teams, different clubs, we have to fight with or against different things, but nobody is interested in that.”

Liverpool will be able to channel the frustration of missing out on the domestic title into their performance on Saturday, and may also draw on last year’s agonising 3-1 defeat in the final to Real Madrid in Kiev.

Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp addresses his players

Yet Klopp believes that his players cannot be fuelled by disappointment alone and challenged them to take inspiration from other sources: chiefly, their excellent performances on the road to this final.

“[Missing out on the title] is a lot of motivation for Saturday but I don’t have to be sad to be motivated, it’s nothing to do with that,” he said. “We had a brilliant season.

“It’s not: ‘We’ve lost the league and now we go there’. Motivation is not like this, you don’t motivate always because something negative happens. It’s about what we can reach, what we can achieve.

“Yes, the extra petrol was that last year we were there and we thought it was the wrong end. We will not stop until we are where we want to be, with all the setbacks in between and all that stuff. But now we stand here, we speak about a very positive season.”

Much has been made about the three-week gap between the final day of the Premier League season and Saturday’s final, with fears that an in-form Liverpool may have lost their rhythm.

The break has been more advantageous for Tottenham, who are able to welcome the likes of Harry Kane, Harry Winks and Jan Vertonghen back from injury after ending the league campaign with a threadbare squad.

Klopp sees no advantage for either side, though. “It’s the same for both of us. You know when you play against Real Madrid in the last match day of the season, and there is a two week break but they know they can not be champion in Spain, they only have to keep their rhythm. That is a massive difference.

“Like when we faced Barcelona [in the semi-final] this time. When we played at Newcastle they had a holiday pretty much. It doesn’t help always but the two weeks can make a difference.

“This time we both have exactly the same circumstances. Both teams will be fresh, that is not the issue. But freshness is one thing.

“If you have to go constantly on the highest level every three days then it is not a problem for the boys, they like that, but there comes a point later when you feel really tired and you have to punch down that inner voice about being tired and go and go and go.

“There will be moments of momentum in the final – if you have it, keep it; if you don’t have it then get it back. They are all important things in these games. It is a big one and we want to have the finish this club deserves.”

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