Fitness-wise then, how is Naby?
He trained.
And Jordan, has he got a chance for Atletico next week?
Yeah. But not for Bournemouth.
Oh, Shaq is not involved yet, and unfortunately Ali is out.
Alisson had, in training before the Chelsea game, a little incident,
we all thought it was nothing, it was clear that he wouldn't play anyway,
the plan was that he would be on the bench,
and then we thought, "We don't have to take any risk" and left him out of the squad.
Scan next day, and they found something, so now he is out.
We will see next week for sure, and then we'll see.
- What's he done? - Muscle.
Slightly, in the hip region.
A small muscle, you could all do your work still,
but a professional goalkeeper, that's slightly different.
So, that's the situation.
The last time before now that you lost three of your last four games
was the end of the 2017-18 season, so does it have little impact on confidence
when you've been so consistent since then,
or does it mean a bigger job for you to lift the players,
because it's almost like a shock to the system when you have that kind of run of form?
It's a mix of all of that. Of course winning gives you confidence, losing costs you it,
that's completely normal, you start thinking about different things,
but how you said, OK, it's a long while ago, but one defeat feels like two defeats,
it's not a massive difference. It's just how you get back on track immediately,
and you can do not by hoping that things click better than the game before,
you just have to work really hard, you have to fight your way back on track,
that's always how it is, it will never be different.
That's what we have to do, all together, on Saturday.
Not even 24 hours from now, we have to do that as a unit, with our supporters together,
and just not wait for the perfect moment, work towards a very good moment,
a super moment, whatever, being perfectly protected,
because the way opponents play against us is not new.
They have a defensive block and go for counter-attacks, use set-pieces and stuff.
Bournemouth are especially dangerous around set-pieces,
I think they score around about 50 per cent of their goals from them, impressive,
so we have to be 100 per cent spot-on there.
We have to play football, force our way through,
accelerate and switch the sides, use small spaces to create big spaces,
and we have to be perfectly protected because of the counter-attacking threat,
with King, Wilson and Fraser especially.
That's the job to do and that wouldn't have been different if we won the last few games.
We want to fight, and that's what we have to show.
I have to ask about this because it's impacting on the Premier League now,
the fair play handshake having gone, Liverpool won't have mascots on the pitch
for the foreseeable future because of the coronavirus outbreak,
the possibility of playing games behind closed doors has been talked about as well -
what are you being told, what information are you getting day-to-day as regards this?
And what advice, what protocol are you actually following?
My answer will not change to what I said after the Chelsea game,
of course we get information every day, we all see the news and stuff,
but apart from that, with our games in the Premier League,
we trust the things they tell us.
No handshakes, no handshakes. No mascots, no mascots.
And if there are some additional things to do from our club
these people sit together all week and think about what they can do
to decrease the probability of being infected. That's it, that's what we try,
nothing changed here really apart from...
Yeah, why should you give a handshake
in times when it's obviously not the right thing to do?
It's not that difficult to change that, and apart from that we have to do the normal stuff,
but like I said after Chelsea, people with much more knowledge who want to find solutions
for all of us, if they make decisions then we hope and trust that they are the right ones
and we follow them - easy as that.
You can set a top-flight record of 22 home wins in a row,
how proud does that make you and how much has Anfield...
When you first arrived as a manager, is it bigger and more crazy than you expected?
Yes, much bigger, but I realised that already a while ago.
The influence and impact of Anfield is much bigger than I thought.
We’ve never really thought about statistics and stuff like this,
and in this moment it doesn’t feel like we won the last 21,
and that’s how defeats change things.
We would never - and have never - ignored the things that have happened to us,
result-wise, injury-wise, whatever.
We just have to create an atmosphere again tomorrow,
we have to use the atmosphere then,
but for that everybody needs to have the right mindset, our people as well.
It’s a situation and not only we - as a team - lost three of the last four,
our supporters lost them as well.
[Now] it’s about the reaction - really fighting back with an atmosphere that is exceptional.
We face an opponent in Bournemouth who have been fighting with all they have
to stay in the league for months already.
They had a really tough period with a lot of injuries;
not all of them, but now a lot of these boys are back,
especially the front-line is now back [to] what usually,
before the season, would be their front three,
even if they played a different system before it.
They are in a tough moment,
we respect that and we wish Bournemouth and Eddie Howe all the best,
but not in the game tomorrow.
It’s not about records, it’s about making the probability as big as possible
to win the next football match, that’s tomorrow and that’s what we prepare for.
It’s what we want to show.
And I know you always look at one game at a time,
you have a big week domestically and in Europe next week,
would getting a win tomorrow get you momentum,
and how important is that ahead of what's to come?
Look, you cannot hope for momentum, you have to work for momentum.
That’s what we want to do.
In the moment, we are completely focused on nothing else than the game tomorrow.
After that we have three days, which is a comfortable space between two games,
with Sunday, Monday and Tuesday for preparing the Atletico game.
Then we will try everything in that game.
Momentum, you never have it for long, it’s there for a moment
and then you have to work again and again for it.
In some moments it feels easier, but it's never easy, it's always difficult.
We want to win the game tomorrow anyway, so it would be great if we can use it.
We work to make it happen.
Jürgen, when you talk about the right mindset with the fans at Anfield,
we spoke after West Ham about it maybe being a bit nervous,
is it maybe because of the expectation,
the will for success and the gap you have at the top,
it's like, "This will happen",
but it's creating that atmosphere, do you think that's been missing a little bit?
No. Absolutely nothing to do with the atmosphere.
We lost at Atletico, we are not responsible for the atmosphere there,
it was a special one; didn't like it too much
but we have time to respond to that next Wednesday...
The atmosphere at Anfield, I mean...
The atmosphere at Anfield, I don't think I started the dialogue about that.
Yeah, I did ask you, just...
That doesn't make it right in the end.
If we are 2-1 down, what crowd in the world is 100 per cent sure we'll turn it around?
So far, our supporters, I would be the first to tell them,
but so far they are only responsible for the good things and not even a little bit
for the not-so-good things which happened.
I think everybody knows what we need: we need to play passes, we need to try things.
If you try things and they don’t work out, that’s all.
Not all the time, it's not like this, and it never was.
If you win a game 4-0, it's not that each pass leads to a goal-scoring opportunity -
so that’s what I mean with mindset.
As a team we have to be ready to try things which will not work out,
that’s how football works.
You cannot only play around the formations, you have to try to play through,
you have to play over, you have to take a risky pass, that’s how football is.
If you don’t try that then you decrease your own chances to win the game.
And for that, it would be nice if the crowd would be ready as well.
That is all I am talking about, it's not difficult.
The atmosphere will be as good as possible, I am sure,
I just mention it because I don’t want that anyone will forget it coincidentally.
Jürgen, because this is relatively uncharted waters for Liverpool -
this Liverpool team over the last two seasons certainly -
to lose three games out of four, since the Chelsea game have you
tried to do things maybe a bit differently in training or freshened things up?
Have you had a big meeting with the players to try and re-energise them?
No, we had a big meeting after the Watford game and after the Chelsea game
it would have been really silly from my side
if we change seven times [players] and then I tell the boys,
"You should have changed the situation for us."
I said it after the game, I liked a lot of parts of the game.
We conceded two goals, one after a counter-attack,
one after a super shot with - and I know nobody wants to hear it - a tricky ball.
Adrian usually saves that and if we don’t lose the ball beforehand…
So they were two situations which were not like they should have been,
but apart from that it was a very intense game
against a very good Chelsea side,
from a team where we changed seven positions, so I was completely fine with that.
It’s difficult to mention that for a football manager after a game you lose,
because nobody wants to hear it, but that’s the truth.
We had our situations, two big, big moments
where we could’ve scored but didn’t.
In that game that we won at Chelsea months ago we scored in these moments.
That’s sometimes the only difference.
After Watford, that was the moment when I thought now we have to talk
in a slightly different and maybe more detailed way.
That’s what we did, but then everybody asked about the reaction
showing in the Chelsea game -
I saw a reaction but not all the players had really something to do with the game before.
It’s just ‘carry on’ - I cannot make the same meeting all three days,
that doesn’t work. Chelsea was Chelsea, we are out of the FA Cup,
we were out of the FA Cup last year [and] I forgot
where we left the competition last year.
We didn’t want to have that, but it is. We lost that game last year
and then the Premier League game we lost last year was in January,
so that’s how it is, it’s not new.
The opponents - Watford were strong, us not so much, an away game at Atletico,
how can I say we have to win there clearly, in the way they approach the game?
It’s really difficult, a lot of teams would have struggled.
And now Chelsea, that’s it. We don’t underestimate it, really,
it’s not that we think, "That’s nothing, normal."
It’s actually for us the opposite of normal,
but to find the way back you cannot change things just like you want,
you have to rely on the things that were good before
and were maybe good in the games you lost.
Just do it in a higher intensity, do it on a higher concentration level,
force it more in some moments, all that stuff.
There are a lot of things you can do without changing it completely and that’s what we try.
Is it a concern as well the lack of goals in the three games you've lost,
but maybe more importantly, not creating chances against Watford either
and in the game over in Madrid?
I know how good they are defensively,
but generally not creating as much as you normally do.
It's difficult to not create headlines because you are all waiting for me to say something
and if I use now the word you use, that is the headline.
I am not that much in that mood, but I am not blind.
I see that we didn’t score and I see that we didn’t create in these moments -
that’s what we are working on, 100 per cent.
We never took it for granted before and now we don’t think it is impossible to do it again,
it’s just about how we set up, how we do the things,
how clear we are in the moments and how good we deal with the little setbacks
in football games, because they are always there and were always there. That’s it.
In a lot of moments we could have done better,
we know that 100 per cent and that’s what we are working on,
but we don’t take it now for granted that from now on we will not score more
and from now on they will score with each chance they have, that’s not like it is.
We know that if we perform on our highest level,
and actually there’s nothing else we want to do tomorrow,
then it will be difficult for Bournemouth, and we should not forget that as well.
It’s not that it will be an easy game for Bournemouth tomorrow,
but we don’t go in the game and think,
"Bournemouth, let’s tick the box and carry on and think about Atletico" - not at all.
We are 100 per cent focused on this game.
The boys want to get a result, the boys want to respond in the right way
and that’s what we have to show because it’s not important what we say in meetings,
it’s important what we show on the pitch
and for the first time since Chelsea we have the opportunity tomorrow at 12.30.
Have you gathered from training in the last few days that the lads are getting over it
and moving towards regaining the confidence
that you've had in spadefuls throughout the season?
Training was good, training was good.
I am not sure how you think we could train after the games we played,
so the boys who played against Chelsea they had yesterday
second-day recovery - we cannot change that.
That’s sports science, so that is not a day for showing a reaction.
The boys who didn’t play, they enjoyed their football a lot in the sessions
we had since then, but that was not really different before.
I get it, again, that you ask it, but the only answer we can give is on the pitch.
It's not here, it's not in the meeting. I cannot explain it good enough,
we cannot speak about all the things we are talking about
because I have to talk to my players.
People might say it’s a difficult situation, but I think it’s rather interesting, to be honest.
I think it’s really interesting and that’s my job,
it’s my work I have to do,
to help the players to be now back where we want to be and where we think we belong.
That’s what we have to do in these sessions and for that we give them
all the help we can give them.
Some recovered, some trained hard and then we bring them all together today
and make a line-up for tomorrow and play football -
in an ideal world, the best football we are able to play.