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Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has insisted that his side will be ready to compete with the best again next season, speaking at a press conference ahead of Liverpool’s clash with Leeds United on Monday evening.
The German reassured supporters of the club with a massive statement of intent, despite the club’s disappointing 2022/23 season.
“You will see – we’ll be ready to fight again,” Klopp told reporters on Friday.
No Bellingham No Problem
The former Borussia Dortmund manager also addressed fans concerns that Liverpool’s refusal to commit funds to bring in Jude Bellingham this summer.
He told the media that the club will be back on form regardless of who is signed in the upcoming transfer window.
“We will bring in the right players, who want to fight for the badge, who want to fight with us, want to develop with us, then everything is fine,” the manager said.
“Fresh legs, fresh minds, we will be ready to fight again,” Klopp stated passionately.
Klopp endured a tumultuous press conference on Friday in response to his shareholders’ suggestion that they will not compete for Bellingham in the summer.
“I wasn’t prepared for these questions!” he joked during the conference.
But he said he is ready to rebuild Liverpool in the summer, and he insists there is no sense in getting emotional about the upcoming challenge.
Klopp: ‘We Will Do It’
“We play a very average season, we have to do business in the market – we will do it!” Klopp said.
“Spending in football combined with football knowledge will lead to improvement, that’s very likely,” the German explained.
“So it’s not rocket science we are talking about. So we have the year we have, but we will be ready to fight again, for whatever,” he stated, “We will see that – you will see that.”
Klopp appeared startled by the emotional response to the Bellingham news leak, which appeared to be an enormous own goal on the part of the club’s owners.
However, he stated that his task is now simple: to remove all the emotion and find the summer signings that will make his team a top-four certainty once again.
“Look, obviously now we realise Manchester City didn’t get worse with Haaland, it was a good signing, eh? But because Arsenal plays a good season there’s a big fight,” Klopp told reporters.
“City always have played, in a lot of games where we beat them, they played better football, but we beat them anyway, and that’s the truth last time as well,” he added.
“This time it didn’t work out, but not because we were not in a situation to create this mentality on the pitch, to be this kind of unbeatable monster,” he said.
“And we didn’t lose one game this year because of the other teams, because they have this and they are better…that is all still possible for us,” the manager explained.
“If we can start now again, in this club, to just be happy if we can do more or the same as others, who cares what others are doing, who cares?”
Before the season ends, Klopp and his side still have several games in which they can begin their turnaround.
The Reds face Leeds on Monday evening at Elland Road and will have been boosted by the news that winger Luis Diaz is set to return to the squad.
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