Make no mistake about it – Jurgen Klopp is serious about trying to win the one trophy which has eluded him during his eight years in charge of Liverpool!
Not since the German’s first season at Anfield have the Reds played in the Europa League, having reached the final of that tournament in 2016 only to lose out to almost perennial winners Sevilla.
We’re back in Europe’s secondary club tournament this term, though, with the continental campaign beginning away to LASK in Austria on Thursday.
Liverpool are unsurprisingly among the favourites to go all the way and lift the trophy in Dublin next May, but Klopp knows that’ll be no easy task and stressed that the competition is very important to him.
Speaking to TNT Sports, he said: “First and foremost, I think we all have to make sure that we all respect the competition in the right manner, that we respect the opponents in the right manner.
“Wherever we go it will be a massive game for the teams, everybody who comes to Anfield it will be a massive game. In the [UEFA] Champions League [it was] the same but it will be here as well, and we have to be 100 per cent ready for that.
“We want to go as far as somehow possible. I would love to go to the final, obviously, but I have no clue if we can reach that because there will be a lot of fantastic football teams in between us and that target, so we have to make sure we perform.”
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Klopp is quite right to target Europa League glory this season, rather than dismissing the tournament as a nuisance his team could do without, an attitude that some English sides have taken in the past to their detriment.
He’s won every other trophy for which he’s competed at Liverpool, although it’s worth noting that we haven’t been in this particular competition for eight years.
The tournament might have struggled a bit for credibility in previous times, but ever since UEFA offered the winners a guaranteed place (and top seeding) in the subsequent season’s Champions League, that has provided a major incentive for clubs to go all-out in trying to win it.
A group stage draw against LASK, Union Saint-Gilloise and Toulouse should be more than negotiable for the Reds, with the utmost of respect to those three teams, although stern challenges will lie in store once we get to the knockout rounds.
Still, judging by the spirit and winning mentality that Liverpool have shown in the early weeks of the campaign, they stand a strong chance of defeating all comers to triumph at the Aviva Stadium in eight months’ time.