JURGEN KLOPP has told his Liverpool players to put him in dreamland by winning all 14 of their remaining games this season, starting with Spurs at Anfield tomorrow evening.
The Reds boss is under pressure following a miserable run of five Premier League matches without a win since the turn of the year.
But he insisted yesterday that the spirit in the camp is good and the belief that their poor fortune can turn on a decent result tonight.
“In my dreams we can win 14 games. We have 14 games and it is possible to win all of them. I don’t have to think it is possible, it is possible – that’s how football is,” he said.
“The players know that because I told them and they heard me.
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“If they know and feel it we will see but it is the truth, so let’s go for it. We need to be positive, not overly positive, not like ‘yeah nothing happened’ but positive.”
Jurgen Klopp has already conceded the title is out of reach and admitted even 42 points from now to May is unlikely to see his side reel in Chelsea. “We have to accept that we cannot be champions this year but there is still everything else to go for,” he said. “The second place? The Holy Grail? It is still to get and we have to go for it.”
Liverpool fans have watched in horror as their form dived off a cliff in January with just one win in 10 matches, sliding from second to fifth and exiting both domestic cups in the process.
It has led to critics circling the club from boardroom to dressing room questioning Klopp’s high-octane style, the transfer policy and whether the players are good enough to mount a challenge.
However Klopp is adamant that just one person is to blame for the mess.
“In my understanding, the manager has to be the main leader in a football team. I am the guy who is responsible,” he said. “It is down to me.
“It doesn’t mean I sit at home and criticise myself or take a bath in self-pity or something like this but I did the things I have done because I thought they were right.
“The fact is that the boys are still really, really good players. I am still an absolutely ok manager and that didn’t change because of a few bad results.
“If anyone criticises the players? Yeah. That is ok. That is our life. I’m sure a lot of people will have criticised me, too. That is absolutely fine as long as there is a point in the week where you think ‘OK! Let’s go again!’.”
Klopp is struggling to put out a decent defence against Spurs with Dejan Lovren (knee) doubtful and Ragnar Klavan recovering from a stomach bug. Adam Lallana is likely to make the starting XI despite battling an Achilles problem this week.
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