Klopp a hermit amid Liverpool title hype

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said he is living like a hermit as the Reds close in on a potential drought-ending Premier League title.

Klopp's Liverpool are second and a point behind defending champions Manchester City in their pursuit of a first league crown since 1990.

Liverpool are also preparing for a blockbuster Champions League semi-final with Lionel Messi's Barcelona.

Amid the title hype in Liverpool, Klopp revealed: "I don't go out — apart from football.

"Why should I? I have enough pairs of jeans to last me for the next 20 years, so I'm alright. I don't go to the shops. I don't do any of that.

"I can imagine the mood in the city is pretty good but I don't need to hear it, I don't need to see it.

"But it's football, and for most of my life I have been a pure football supporter, so if my team was doing this I know what I would have been like. My favourite thing would have been a situation like we have now, where it is buzzing.

"I can imagine people want to go out and celebrate, talk about it, but we are not part of that. We have to make sure it stays like this – and that's no problem.

"I love the situation we are in, it's really good, but of course we have to prove it every day and every game. It's all good, but it's not perfect, so we have to carry on working like we have been doing."

Liverpool are in the midst of a 17-game unbeaten streak, including eight consecutive victories after their 4-1 second-leg rout of Porto in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.

Klopp's side travel to relegation-threatened Cardiff City on Sunday and the German added: "It seems good, but it is like being a 400m runner. You might think you are in a good place. You have run the perfect race with 100m to go – but then you don't ­concentrate for a moment and the ­others go past you. The race is only finished when it is ­finished – and not ­before.

"But we are OK with ­injuries at the moment and we are really in a proper competition mood. If we are tired we don't feel it. We want to be playing and winning, not sitting at home and hoping the others lose. That's exactly how you should be feeling as a professional sportsman."