Liverpool will host Aston Villa tomorrow (Saturday 20 May) at Anfield Stadium, with the kick-off at 16:00.
While everyone who is anyone in the world of football is talking about Liverpool's hopes for a top four finish, Liverpool boss, Jurgen Klopp, it seems, is not a man who banks on hope.
Klopp said he doesn't need hope in football, all he needs is to win matches.
"There’s no problem. I never hope, I never had hope for that, I don’t need that. I know that we have to win all the football games and then there’s maybe a chance, a big maybe, but that's all," said Klopp as quoted by www.liverpoolfc.com.
"I watched the game [Newcastle United’s win over Brighton & Hove Albion] last night but I didn’t watch it and thought when they scored goals and stuff like this that I was disappointed. I was that once in my life and it was when Vincent Kompany fired the ball in the goal [for Manchester City against Leicester City in 2019]. That was the moment, but never around that.
"It’s not in our hands, whatever they get they deserve, easy as that. So we have to do our job and then we will see what that means. But my hope is not big or lesser than before, because I never had."
According to Klopp, the biggest prize in football is three points, and that is exactly what Liverpool will go for.
"The biggest prize in football are three points. There’s a misunderstanding that it’s about trophies and stuff like this because that’s true as well definitely, but when you win a football game in a very decisive moment it’s always the same: you go and try everything to win the game and that’s the reward you get, most of the time three points and sometimes a trophy.
"That’s exactly how I see it. There’s no better reason to go into a football game and want to win it than you could get three points, and that’s what we want," Klopp added.
As much as he has three points on his mind, Klopp is wary of the Aston Villa threat, especially since Unai Emery took over.
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He has likened them to the Villareal side Emery coached before his move to Aston Villa, with a very clear identity in the way they approach the game.
"But we know it’s not about us only this story tomorrow, because Aston Villa since Unai [Emery] is there, I don’t know where they would be in the table if he would have been there from the beginning, that’s the truth.
"They play clear, their football is like Villarreal a little bit when he was there, obviously very successful, difficult to play against, super-confident, now super-settled into what they want to do. So that will be tricky definitely. But it must be tricky for them as well and thank God it became a bit more tricky for opponents recently against us. We should try to make sure that it will happen again."
