Liverpool are used to the problem of catching Manchester Metropolis – Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool supervisor Jurgen Klopp insists his gamers are used to the problem of attempting to maintain tempo with Manchester Metropolis and don’t discover it mentally draining.

By the point his facet kick-off towards second-placed Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday they might be 12 factors behind the Premier League leaders and defending champions – albeit with two video games in hand.

The final two Covid-impacted seasons has seen the Reds and Metropolis each win a title every by a big hole, however the have to be almost-perfect each marketing campaign has not gone away since 2018-19 when Liverpool earned 97 factors however completed second to Pep Guardiola’s facet.

“It’s not mentally draining, we’re used to that,” stated Klopp.

“You requested us two years in the past once we have been fairly a number of factors forward you stated, ‘Oh no, Metropolis are capable of do ridiculous issues’.

“They’re able to win the final 15 or no matter and the 12 months earlier than that when Metropolis have been champions we each received the final 15 video games just about.

“It’s the state of affairs, we need to have that competitors, it’s all positive, Metropolis are there to beat, however to do this it’s important to be excellent.

“If you’re not excellent yourselves it’s important to hope that Metropolis isn’t excellent and that’s just about like a passive function which I don’t like a lot.

“You possibly can see already it’s getting rather more thrilling for you (the media). Not for us however clearly for the skin world.

“We’re right here collectively on the coaching floor so we are able to put our personal focus to it, permit ourselves to remain optimistic, permit ourselves to look ahead to the subsequent soccer recreation and cope with all of the difficulties we face over a day, which is kind of difficult.”

Chelsea began December prime of the desk with a one-point lead over Metropolis however an detached month, together with a defeat and three attracts, has seen them fall eight factors behind having performed the identical variety of video games.

The defending European champions have struggled to hit prime kind for a while however Klopp doesn’t suppose that makes them much less of a risk.

“I don’t suppose for one second this season Chelsea have lacked motivation,” he added.

“In the intervening time it appears a bit totally different however squad-wise the staff they’ll line up is all the time so good however the quantity of video games it’s important to play once you don’t have your full squad is de facto difficult.

“So the issue isn’t the motivation – not for us and never for Chelsea. I’m fairly positive that the issue we (each) have is the standard of Metropolis.

“We now have now a few years once we might actually meet up with them, once we have been practically there after which we have been there, so for us we perceive how massive that was.”