Jurgen Klopp claims Liverpool want to be back in the Champions League next season as they prepare for their Premier League opener against Chelsea.
The Reds missed out on Champions League qualification after finishing 5th in the Premier League table last campaign, however, they will compete in this season’s UEFA Europa League.
Liverpool travel to Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon to face Mauricio Pochettino’s Blues in their opening league game of the 2023/24 season.
“I’m not sure if my optimism is based on last season, to be honest. I love the pre-season so far. We worked hard, everyone can expect that, I enjoyed it a lot, to be honest, it was really good. The boys were open, the boys were listening, eyes open, ears open, so we did a lot, not only on the pitch, but in meetings as well,” Klopp said.
“We really wanted to learn our game, not again because it must be different to what we did before, but we wanted to make sure that we really go to the next level in our game together.
“That’s actually what happened but probably you saw the pre-season games, there were moments where we were too open, there were moments where we were not protected enough, that’s clear.
“Then the shouts are loud, I understand that, but it’s more an organisation problem. It’s nothing to do with individual quality because individual quality is extremely high what we have. It’s my job to help the boys organise and to protect each other better in these moments. Besides that, [it’s] how I said, I enjoyed the pre-season and now let’s go.”
The German added; “The sessions I saw. The desire, the concentration, the readiness, the openness. Just that I saw a lot of things where my thought was in that moment, ‘OK, they mean business, so let’s give it a go.’ That’s it, you could see it. We are not happy.
“It’s not that I want to remind the boys every day and say, ‘By the way, last year was like this and that.’ That makes no sense. But it’s deep inside, it’s there anyway. We want to show up. In a few weeks’ time, whenever the draw is, we are really happy to play Europa League; but of course we want to be in the Champions League the year after.
“There are two possibilities: you qualify for the Champions League or you win the Europa League. Both are pretty difficult but we should give a try for both, I would say, and then we will see if we can do it or not. We have targets, a lot of targets, we are highly motivated. How I said, my good feeling is based on the things I saw and the things we did during pre-season.”
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