LIVERPOOL MUST START ALL OVER AGAIN – KLOPP
Jurgen Klopp is urging Liverpool to “restart” after their unbeaten run came to an abrupt and unexpected end against lowly Watford.
Liverpool fans were stunned when Watford, one of the Premier League’s four clubs fighting relegation, thumped unbeaten Liverpool 3-nil.
The away loss at Vicarage Park at the weekend ended a triumphant march of 44 games without defeat.
Liverpool continue to hold a 22-point lead at the top of the Premier League, however, and Klopp, is not making too much of the loss.
Often credited with popularising the football philosophy, Gegenpressing, the German is regarded as one of the World’s best managers.
“Sometimes a little knock is important,” he told UK newspaper reporters, “So I don’t see anything negative in it.
“Whatever we did before we can do again”
“From time to time if you are not good enough, you need to see [the] effect. Not good enough – what happens then? Restart.
“Maybe the longer the run goes maybe it becomes more important. But I didn’t see that. Now it is over. We can start again with whatever we did before, and we will.”
While the margin of their defeat to Watford came as a stunner, the fact that the Reds finally went down was not totally unexpected.
Ever since thrashing Southampton at the start of February they’ve been struggling. They lost the first leg of the last-16 match in the Champions League to Atletico Madrid.
Then, at home in England, they’ve squeaked out narrow wins over Shrewsbury Town, West Ham and bottom-of-the-log Norwich City.
Liverpool back in action on Tuesday
Klopp’s men will be back in action on Tuesday. They’ll play Chelsea in the FA Cup fifth round and Klopp admits he’s unsure what to expect from his players.
“You cannot win the amount of games the boys have done if they are easily influenced by the outside world, so we will see how they react,” he said.
“But I honestly don’t know what to expect. I’ve never won 18 games in a row without a single loss in 44 straight matches – first time in my life. How they react we shall see.”
Has there been any reaction from the New Jersey Bookmakers to the Liverpool slump? Yes and no. Liverpool is so far ahead in the Premier League race many Sportsbooks are no longer taking bets on them. And those like FanDuel and William Hill that are have set the odds at a sky high -100000!
The Champions League where Liverpool has still to play Aletico Madrid in the second round is something else. Manchester City is currently the favorite of 888sport and most other NJ sportsbooks.
On Monday March 2, 888sport was offering odds of +350 on them winning this European championship. Their second favourites were Germany’s Bayern Munich at +375 with Liverpool a distant third at +650 and Barcelona 4th at +750.
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— Liverpool FC (@LFC) March 1, 2020