Jürgen Klopp believes the improvement of teams lower down the table has contributed to a more competitive and unpredictable Premier League this season, as his Liverpool team prepare to face an out-of-sorts Newcastle.
Eddie Howe’s team travel to Anfield having lost four of their previous five Premier League games, battling injuries and struggling to juggle Champions League football and their domestic commitments. After finishing fourth last season, Newcastle lie ninth.
Three of the league’s top five lost in the Boxing Day round of fixtures, with Arsenal, Tottenham and Aston Villa all beaten by teams placed lower in the table. “That’s the quality of the Premier League,” said Klopp. “It’s difficult to win games when you’re not at your best. And you can play your best and still draw or lose a game. It’s all pretty normal.
“OK once, City were 10 or 15 points ahead and now they’re not. But January, February and March they can go full throttle. But Aston Villa improved massively, Tottenham is back, Arsenal improved massively, we are kind of back, and City are City.
“It’s not to do with coaching any more. It’s just recovery and then meetings, that’s how it is. That’s why Aston Villa can beat City and Arsenal because they are just good. It was always the case that you can go to somewhere like Bournemouth and lose because they’re incredible as well.
“That’s the Premier League at its best and probably how it should look. I would obviously prefer a different situation, but that’s not possible, so we take it like this.”
Klopp also highlighted Liverpool’s comeback win at Newcastle in August as a critical moment that imbued his new-look team with confidence this season. After drawing at Chelsea on the season’s opening weekend, Liverpool beat both Bournemouth and Newcastle with 10 men to burnish their title ambitions, with Darwin Núñez scoring a late double in a 2-1 win at St James’ Park.
Liverpool have lost just once in the league all season – when they played with nine men for half an hour in a controversial defeat at Tottenham in September – and will need to rely on Núñez and others in the absence of Mohamed Salah, who will depart for the Africa Cup of Nations after the Newcastle game.
“I’m not sure what had to turn that day but it was an important day,” said Klopp on that Newcastle win. “We got the red card against Bournemouth the week before and then a second red card in a week – we realised pretty quickly what we can do if we really stick together. When we play with 10, everybody buys 100% into defending. Against Newcastle we had to defend deep. I said after the game: ‘If we can defend with 10 like this, who has a problem to do it with 11?’
“It’s clear that [defending] is the basis for everything and if we do that, the offensive potential of these boys will come out. It was for sure a special day and a very important one.”
Fábio Carvalho, meanwhile, has returned to Liverpool early from his loan at RB Leipzig. The 21-year-old made only three starts in a total of 15 appearances for Leipzig after joining last summer in what had been set to be a season-long deal.
Leipzig’s sporting director, Rouven Schröder, told the club’s official website: “Fábio was able to quickly integrate himself here, but both parties had expected more from his time here – especially Fábio in terms of his playing time.
“Due to the quality and competition within our squad at his position, we are unable to guarantee this for him. We held several discussions over the last days and in the end, decided to end his loan early.”
