Klopp wants Liverpool to recognise ´pure opportunity´ of title tilt

Jurgen Klopp is focused only on Liverpool’s “pure opportunity” to win the Premier League rather than the points they have dropped in recent weeks.

The Reds are one point clear of Manchester City at the top of the table, yet they might have boasted a far healthier advantage had they not drawn three of their last four league matches.

But with a narrow lead still intact and just 11 games to play, Klopp is looking solely at the positives as Liverpool prepare to host Watford on Wednesday.

The five-time European champions have not won the English top flight since 1990.

“You are here for Liverpool, right? So you are not that experienced in winning the league as well,” Klopp said, addressing the assembled reporters at his news conference. “I’m sorry to say that.

“But it’s so positive, so positive. If you only judge the moment and see the opportunity, everything is fine.

Back-to-back Merseyside games on the horizon…

A BIG week ahead. pic.twitter.com/EwTLQdleiP

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) February 25, 2019

“You can always look one week back, two weeks back, three weeks back, where we dropped points, conceded goals and think of the next game: ‘we have to win that’, not ‘we can win that’. It makes life more uncomfortable. That’s the truth.

“If you can be a champion for the first time in your life – for a lot of our supporters and a lot of my players as well – it’s pure opportunity, pure opportunity.

“You have to use this on the front foot, with all the things you always have in football. You will never win a game without defending or focused only on defending. We can win a game 4-0 with defending, or against Bournemouth with defending and still score.

“That’s the only thing we have to make sure we can feel and use: it’s an opportunity.”