Jurgen Klopp has explained that he wants to see his Liverpool side show ‘fight’ against Napoli tomorrow in their final Champions League group game.
The Reds secured their spot in the knockout stages of the competition after their 3-0 defeat of Ajax last week.
Following back to back Premier League defeats against Nottingham Forest and Leeds United, the German explained what sort of performance he is expecting from his side against the Italian outfit.
“Fight,” the 55-year-old replied when asked about what he wants to see from the FA Cup champions at Anfield tomorrow night (via Liverpoolfc.com). “You think I want to see now that we start passing around them, backheels and bicycle kicks and these kind of things? Of course not.
“We have to work and we will. For that, we have to make sure that the boys we line up are ready to do that and then we will do it and then we will see what we get for it.
“The problem is Napoli will fight as well, but that’s fine, that’s Champions League, competition at the highest level. How I said, really a team in top form in the moment. Whoever they line up, they can make changes, each striker scores and all these kind of things – that’s their situation.
“We had that situation as well from time to time, so I’m not jealous or whatever. It’s fine, well deserved. But we have to be the opponent they don’t want to face. But in the moment, I think the mood in the Napoli camp is pretty good – rightly so – that they think, ‘Let’s give them the next knock.’ And we have to fight against that.”
Napoli are in sensational form this season and are five points clear at the top of Serie A.
They defeated us 4-1 in Naples in the opening group stage game of Europe’s premier competition last month and are yet to drop a single point in the competition.
Top spot is still up for grabs for Liverpool tomorrow but only if we defeat Luciano Spalletti’s side by a four-goal margin.
The Italians are on a 13-game win streak and haven’t lost a game since April so we’re certainly going to have to show some ‘fight’ to avoid losing successive games at Anfield.
We may already be through to the Last 16 of the competition but let’s hope for a huge performance to lift the mood around the camp.