Klopp to ignore Champions League pressure on Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp wants Liverpool to enjoy their football and ignore the pressure of qualification for the Champions League as they bid for a top-four finish.

With Manchester City beating West Brom on Tuesday night, Liverpool sit fourth in the league table, one point above Arsenal who beat Sunderland.

Klopp’s men also have what could be a crucial goal difference advantage over Arsenal ahead of facing already-relegated Middlesbrough on the final day.

And while qualification for Europe’s elite club competition is seen as imperative in financial and recruitment terms for Liverpool, Klopp is ignoring any additional pressure.

“We spoke about it before and said ‘is there really pressure on us or is it only what people will make of it?’, because we always have pressure, we are used to it,” he said.

(Photo credit: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)

“We are professional football players or managers. If we always want to win games then we have always this pressure.

“There is still space to enjoy football and I saw a lot of joy.

“There was a lot of good football (against West Ham) in, but we did really well and we helped ourselves with our best tools, with football.

“Now we have to recover and then prepare to do our best against Middlesbrough again.”