- Title: Klopp says his side needs to improve to seal Hoffenheim tie
- Date: 22nd August 2017
- Summary: LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, UK (AUGUST 22, 2017) (REUTERS) LIVERPOOL ON TRAINING PITCH LIVERPOOL MANAGER JUERGEN KLOPP / PLAYERS JOGGING IN BACKGROUND (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER JUERGEN KLOPP ON COUTINHO INJURY, SAYING: "If Phil can start tomorrow what he can because on top he's now ill, One or two other players were back after (the injuries) were not that serious and he was back in training today. If he would start tomorrow, then yeah, it would take time because (he hasn't) had no training for a long time and meanwhile and so (we have) no idea in this moment that we would have to check in a moment when he's back." LIVERPOOL PLAYER ANDREW ROBERTSON DURING TRAINING SESSION LIVERPOOL FORWARD ROBERTO FIRMINO STRETCHING (SOUNDBITE) (English) LIVERPOOL MANAGER JUERGEN KLOPP, SAYING: "I think the main difference between this game tomorrow and the game last week is that now everybody knows about the quality of Hoffenheim, I knew it before but I'm pretty sure a lot of people in England didn't expect the quality of Hoffenheim they saw and that's now clear. For me, now it's half-time and in half-time you have to adjust things, you have to change things in the right direction. The first game was good enough to get the result, the second game needs to be better, so that's how it is." LIVERPOOL FORWARD MOHAMED SALAH DURING TRAINING SESSION MORE OF LIVERPOOL TRAINING SESSION IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (German) HOFFENHEIM MANAGER JULIAN NAGELSMANN, SAYING (OFFICIAL TRANSLATION): "So let me answer the second part of your question first about penalties... No I won't ask my team like I have in the past to train for penalties in particular. I know they do themselves anyway, we've got a crazy goalkeeper who likes to stay after training for another half hour and likes to save penalties as much as possible while people keep blasting the ball at him. Penalties is much less about the technical aspect and more about the mental, psychological aspect, and this is something that's very difficult to recreate on the training ground. Our training ground is rather small so trying to recreate the atmosphere from a proper penalty shootout with just one of our technical staff shouting from the balcony is going to be rather challenging, so we've experienced this for real against Dortmund and against Hamburg and it gets extremely loud in the ground then. So the first part of your question, how do I expect Liverpool to play, I think they know fully well of course that they're not going to need an early goal, they know that they're in front and I think they're going to play a bit like how they played in the second half of the first leg, waiting a bit, giving the ball back to us, observing us to see how stable we are, how we play in possession and what kind of chances we can create. What we are going to try to do is to take the lead and if we take the lead obviously, that's going to change things for Liverpool. If we were going to take the lead the Liverpool supporters would be cheering them on to become more offensive and less deep and waiting. I think they know they are in front for now, but let's see what we can do and let's see if we can score that early goal." NAGELSMANN LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE
- Embargoed: 5th September 2017 20:10
- Keywords: Champions League Liverpool Hoffenheim Klopp Nagelsmann
- Location: LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, UK
- City: LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Soccer,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA0016V8OSVZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said on Tuesday (August 22) that Brazilian star Coutinho would likely not feature in Wednesday's (August 23) second leg against Hoffenheim to qualify for the Champions League group stages.
Klopp said his team needed to up their game from the first leg, which they won 2-1 away from home, if they want to cruise into the competition's next round.
Hoffenheim manager Julian Nagelsmann said his team needed an early goal to bring the tie back into life. The young tactician said he wasn't looking to play for penalties, though joked his goalkeeper made a habit of staying behind after training to save spot kicks. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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