Jürgen Klopp has said Liverpool must use their remaining matches to build a foundation for next season, insisting: “The future has started already.”
Although the Liverpool manager, whose side face Nottingham Forest at Anfield on Saturday, maintains that qualifying for Europe is this season’s priority, he is also planning ahead to avoid a repeat of its disappointments.
He believes Liverpool produced their best performance of the campaign when thrashing Leeds 6-1 on Monday and that the return of their counter-pressing prowess, plus the integration of new players, will ensure the final eight matches have a lasting benefit.
“Next season is already on my mind,” he said. “We have to build on what we learn now. What we learned this season, a lot, is how it doesn’t work out. From a counter-pressing monster to pretty much a nonexistent counter-pressing side. I thought that was far away to be honest but it was pretty quick. It was pretty much done.
“When it’s gone, it is for different reasons. Frontline defending was not great, midfield was not there. Very often in the last few years the discussion has been about our last line being too high, too risky.
“It has developed a little bit into that over the years. Now when we haven’t defended that well up front any more, all of a sudden the last line was too high but we realise that too late. So how do we stop that if we don’t defend up front too well? Now we know how it doesn’t work, which is good. It is important information. Finally we know.”
As well as tactical improvement, Klopp expects Liverpool to benefit from a quieter schedule in the coming weeks and, longer term, the adaptation of Darwin Núñez, Luis Díaz and Cody Gakpo.
“We have more time in this period that we don’t normally have because we usually play every three days and I want to really use this training time to create something which we can build on and use,” he said. “How to play with it and bring the boys together.
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“Lucho [Díaz] was here for half a year, was sensational and then he was injured until recently. Now we have time to bring him, step by step, back into the team. Darwin came in a year when, had it been two or three years ago when we were absolutely flying, it would have been a pure joy for a striker because each ball was ending up in the box. So he can get more used to all the things we do, which is the same for Cody.
“The future has started already, let me say it like this, but while we are here we have to win football games now. If we don’t qualify for any European competition it would be a massive disappointment but we should make sure we don’t waste time during this period. I hope we can take some things from this season which are more useful than just telling us it was the wrong way.”