I couldn’t see it - Klopp on UCL spot.

• Liverpool will finish fifth on the EPL log table.

• Europa League is their destination.

• Klopp saw it coming [No UCL football]

With Liverpool's fifth place finish confirmed, Jurgen Klopp says as optimistic as he is, he couldn't see his side qualifying for the UEFA Champions League, especially with Newcastle United needing just a point in their previous game to close the door on Liverpool.

"Of course in the moment when it’s then a fact that you cannot qualify for the Champions League anymore, that’s a moment where… because even when I knew after the last game they need one point or whatever, the other two teams need one point, for me it was clear they will get that point so I drew kind of a line underneath it," Klopp said as quoted by liverpoolfc.com.

"I’m a very optimistic person but in these moments I couldn’t see it."

The Liverpool boss has accepted fifth place, which, incidentally, he was not too optimistic about either.

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"If you don’t qualify for the Champions League the best possible place you can end up is fifth, that’s what we did. If you would have asked me that 10 games ago if that’s possible, I would have said, ‘No, I can’t see that, for that you have to play much better’ and all these kinds of things. That the boys did that is really good. It is not perfect. We didn’t end up in fifth place because of the last 10 games, we ended up there because of the lack of consistency before that."

Lack of consistency, is what landed Liverpool in fifth place according to Klopp.

He bemoans their horrible form after the World Cup, and says had they played the way they played in the last 10 games for the whole season, they would be telling a different story.  

"But, I’m not sure, I think the last 10 games, if I’m right even after Dubai since we were in the training camp, so after the World Cup, not everything was great but the amount of points we collected since then is pretty good and if we could have done that over the whole season we would be in a different place."

One thing that Klopp is optimistic about, is Liverpool's prospects for next season, based on the spirit at Anfield towards the end of the season.

"Of course there are reasons for optimistic views because the things we showed in the last few weeks, that’s definitely the case. We have another reason for an optimistic view.

"Because of the atmosphere our people created in the last home game, after the Villa game the atmosphere in the stadium, the way the club said farewell, the day after that how Bobby [Firmino] said farewell.

"All these kinds of things are absolutely the basis for a fantastic future, so we don’t have to make it bigger than it is. It’s a football season, we didn’t deliver what everybody wanted and everybody expected rightly so. But we are still really united and that’s the good thing about it."

Liverpool travel to St. Mary's Stadium on Sunday 28 May for their last English Premier League for their season finale against Southampton. Kick-off will be at 17:30.

It's not in our hands - Klopp on Liverpool's top four finish hopes.

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."

It was good, really good - Klopp on Liverpool's win over Leicester.

Liverpool moved within a point of Manchester United and Newcastle United after beating Leicester City 3-0 at King Power Stadium on Monday.

Liverpool's goals came from Curtis Jones 33', 36', and Trent Alexander-Arnold in the 71st minute.

It was a 'controlled' performance from Liverpool, as their boss, Jurgen Klopp alluded, in their seventh straight win of the season.

They averaged 67% possession, which produced 16 goal attempts, with five on target.

Defensively, they were impressive as well, limiting Leicester to just four goal attempts.

"No, but it was good – really good. Between the 55th and, I don't know exactly, the 75th minute maybe, I would have loved to have controlled a bit better," Klopp told www.liverpoolfc.com.

"Our positioning was not as clear. The first 15 minutes I accept 100 per cent because it was a bit of a wild game. They really went for us and we had to figure out how we could build up the game. We had to adapt to that, the boys did that, we became more flexible and from that moment on we had five players facing the other goal and could then really pass through the lines and mix it up with [a] pass in behind, like for the first goal."

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Klopp said he was impressed by how his charges controlled the game, not allowing it to be a free-for-all affair.

"Really good examples for the different things you have to do behind the line or through the line with the second goal. The third goal [was] obviously a wonderful set-piece. We could have scored the third one immediately after [going] 2-0 up. We had other moments and it was really good. I think the game never became the game it could have been, like a real fight with challenges everywhere and stuff like this, because we controlled it in a really convincing way."

In their next match, Liverpool will host Aston Villa on Saturday 20 May at Anfield Stadium, kick-off will be at 16:00.

Absolutely great! - Klopp on Salah.

Moh Salah has reached another milestone in his illustrious Liverpool career, by becoming only the eighth Liverpool player to score 100 goals at Anfield.

The Egyptian King's manager, Jurgen Klopp, has nothing but high praise for the forward.

Klopp believes that after Salah's career has ended, he will definitely be seen as one of the all-time greats.

"The numbers he creates, we all know that after his career he will be seen as one of the all-time greats, that's clear," Klopp told Liverpool's official website as quoted by KingFut. https://www.kingfut.com/2023/05/08/all-time-greats-salah-klopp/

"But now he is still in the career and some people might not appreciate him enough, but we do.

"As long as he's playing he needs to work as well and he did that today, I like that a lot, how he is really aware of all the things we need to do. At the moment it's really, really important for us and really good. So, I liked it a lot."

Klopp says Salah deserves the rain of praised he has been showered with, and that scoring 30 goals again this season is a special achievement for the left-footed magician.

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"He deserves all the praise he gets already and he will get even more after his career, because in a club with the all-time greats we had in the past, being the first one who scores in nine consecutive home games is super-special," he added.

"Scoring again 30 goals this season is super-special and setting up a lot of goals as well, as he is so often involved in our goals, not only with the assist or the finish, very often with the second- or third-last pass as well, which is as important. So, yeah, absolutely great."