Bayern vs Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp criticises calls to prioritise Premier League over Champions League

Jurgen Klopp would stiffen at the suggestion that an option would be to downgrade the importance of this tie to focus on the Premier League, as some pundits have proposed

From the railway tracks that connect Munich’s Hauptbanhof with Augsburg, the lurid lights of the Allianz Arena were a reminder of where Liverpool wished to be. That was three Februarys ago, when Jurgen Klopp was less than four months into the job and the Champions League seemed like a dazzling speck in the distance. The opponent, indeed, was a Bavarian club but not the one whose company is a barometer of status.

It says much about Liverpool’s progression under Klopp that the competition which the club was desperate to get back into after just one appearance in eight seasons now feels like it is no longer a priority, that an exit at the first knockout stage would not be considered campaign defining.

Klopp, of course, has won nothing yet and the wait for a trophy has been longer than any of the managers before him who have lasted in his position for three and a half years or more. There is understanding at Anfield, though, because of when and where he started, the clear development of the team year on year, and because of how close he has gone – the experiences he has inspired.

While it might not be enough for supporters of other clubs who augment the discussion around achievements whenever Liverpool don’t quite reach the point they want to arrive at, so long as Klopp keeps producing results which invites journeys to places like Munich, so long as he qualifies for the Champions League – as he surely already has done for a third season in succession, those who really hang on his every word and those who appointed him in the first place will continue to believe definitive success is not far away.

On Merseyside as well as in Boston where Fenway Sports Group are based, there is a common recognition that there is no embarrassment in being a runner up but there is an embarrassment in not actually competing – which is what Liverpool did for so long before Klopp landed.

Klopp said publicly before the first leg of this tie that the Premier League title is more important for Liverpool at this moment. He knows what that would mean for him and the club he represents both on a sporting and social level. Yet this admission is also a reflection of Klopp’s pragmatic side. He senses domestic possibilities because they are more achievable, with Liverpool being closer to Manchester City than they are any final.

It was put to him that Bayern were a free hit and he sort of agreed. “There is no real pressure, I see only opportunity,” he responded. “Win it or go out. Everyone knows you can go out against Bayern and no one will say: ‘How could that happen?’ That’s how we see it. Clear. We wanted and we still want to prove our value again in Europe. I think that is really important for the club that we really show we are a proper threat. That’s how it is for all teams. We are really back on track but that doesn’t mean we now go through against Bayern.”

Klopp, however, would stiffen at the suggestion that an option would be to downgrade the importance of this tie to focus on the Premier League, as some pundits have proposed. It became clear that if Liverpool go out, it won’t be because they haven’t really tried to go through.

“It is so easy to sit in an office or a studio and talk about things like that,” Klopp said. “They say the best way [to win the Premier League] is to go out of all the cup competitions early. You do that and in that moment the same people go for you like mad. It’s like: ‘You are disrespectful to the competition’. Now it is closer to the end of the season and it is allowed to go out of the Champions League without even trying to go through? That’s really mad. That’s the reason why they don’t have a job on the sideline, one of the reasons. No criticism, but it’s a big difference to be in charge or to talk about somebody in charge. That’s a massive difference.”

Jurgen Klopp insists that Liverpool are high on confidence (Getty)

When it was implied that his players crave the spotlight of the Champions League anyway and this makes his task around focus and motivations that bit easier, Klopp gave, perhaps, the most jagged answer about where Liverpool stand under him as well as what they are up against.

Though he has spent well in the last 18 months, he has only been able to because he has helped improve players like Philippe Coutinho to the level where Barcelona are willing to break a British transfer record to sign him. Equally, funds to sign Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker, Naby Keita and Fabinho were generated partly from the run to the Champions League final.

He did not mention what happens at Manchester City for the club to be able to afford more than £100m on full-backs two summers ago but he did emphasise the importance of progression in the world’s most lucrative football competition in relation to Liverpool’s financial strength and what that means in real terms.

“We all have to qualify constantly for Champions League,” he stressed. “That’s what gives us the money to improve to do the next step and the next step. When we qualified by beating Napoli? I’m not sure how much but it was (worth) a lot of money in one game. I didn’t think a second before that game ‘Oh my God! We have to earn this money for the club!’ We only wanted to go through. After we got through it was like ‘Wow! That’s proper!’

“It is a money throwing competition and we have to be in it as long as possible because we have to improve the situation for the club. It’s not like we always ask people ‘Do you have some money? Do you have some money?’ We have to earn most of the money for ourselves with the football that we play. That is exactly what you can do in the Champions League. If it happens, it will be a great night. If it doesn’t happen, it is not the end of the world. But I don’t think a second about it that it will not happen. I only talk about it because you asked me, eh?”

Klopp viewed the respect shown by Bayern both on and off the pitch in the first leg as a classic approach from a club that knows what it wants, rather than something out of the ordinary. Though they have a reputation for going after teams, Bayern’s conservativism at Anfield was naked and this actually seemed to impress Klopp. “Bayern is famous for going for results they think are good for them,” he corrected. He would show sympathy with the three Bayern players cut indefinitely from the German national team by Joachim Low, without public explanation. Only Mats Hummels is likely to feature against Liverpool and Klopp thinks the defender, who he used to manage at Borussia Dortmund, will be determined to prove Low wrong with a strong performance in this key match.

“The only possibility for me is to think about how I’d react,” he concluded. “I was never in contention for the national team but if something like this happened to me when I was young, fit and healthy then I think I would try to show it was a mistake.”