Klopp and Liverpool have ´immense´ desire to keep winning trophies

Jurgen Klopp says there is an “immense” desire to win trophies in a Liverpool squad boosted by key signings and the experience of having come so close before.

The Reds won the Champions League in June, 12 months on from a final defeat to Real Madrid, and they are on course to claim the Premier League title for the first time, having been edged out by Manchester City in 2018-19.

Klopp’s side have also picked up the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup along the way, with Liverpool’s seven-year trophy drought at the start of the calendar year now long forgotten.

“Is it greed? I’m not sure. It’s like this desire you want to have trophies,” Klopp told ESPN, with Liverpool 13 points clear in the Premier League with a game in hand. “I don’t think it’s real greed.

“We have improved our opportunities obviously with different things, with the players we brought in and [the ability] to work together for a while of course with more experience. Stuff like this.

“Getting used to different situations more and more [is also helpful]. You know a defeat is a defeat, but if you learn, it still makes sense, like the Champions League final the year before, when we lost that.

goals in for Sadio, Mo and Bobby pic.twitter.com/M00KQIZdIe

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 31, 2019

“It’s not that we really learned something from the final, but the way to the final or the way to the next final, the experience for me before helped us a lot.

“I really think our desire is immense. It’s big, it’s massive to win more trophies. If it’s greed, I don’t know, but yeah, who cares?”

Klopp is well aware of the magnitude of potentially ending Liverpool’s 30-year wait for a top-flight championship – “People tell me that constantly,” he says – but he insists the team have never been “dreamers” and will continue to work hard for their success.

“We are not dreamers,” Klopp said. “We work for the things we want to have and, if you work for it, it’s not guaranteed that you get it.

“It’s only chance that you get anything, and that’s what we try and that’s exactly what we did again [this season]

“The mood was brilliant when we started the season again. We play for everything. The Super Cup is a good example. We didn’t know exactly how important it is. When we won it, it felt sensational, but we had no clue before.”