Klopp rejects title challenge talk: 'I couldn't care less'

Jurgen Klopp could not care less about speculation Liverpool are ready to launch a Premier League title challenge.

Liverpool collected a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace on Monday to move second in the Premier League table after two games, leaving them only behind last season's champions Manchester City.

A second successive clean sheet, backed up by goals from James Milner and Sadio Mane, saw Liverpool state their case as potential league winners.

But Klopp feels it is far too early to talk about Liverpool potentially topping the table at the end of the season for the first time since 1989-90.

"It's very early to be honest, I couldn't care less, it's not important," Klopp told Sky Sports when asked about Liverpool being tipped to make a title run. "We are not in a race with other Premier League teams.

"I wasn't sure 100 per cent we would score tonight.

"We must be difficult to play and nobody should be happy to play us either at home or coming to Anfield, but we will see what happens at the end of the season.

"It's too strong a league to discuss after two weeks, so we'll leave that up to you to discuss."

 

August 20, 2018

Midfielder Naby Keita impressed again as Liverpool won at Selhurst Park, Roy Hodgson's men seeing Aaron Wan-Bissaka dismissed for bringing down Mohamed Salah with 15 minutes to go, but Klopp feels the new signing needs to come out of his shell outside of the pitch.

"He's a very shy person and not very extroverted, he needs to settle a bit," Klopp added. "He's next to Sadio all the time.

"We all love Naby but we don't know if he loves us as he doesn't speak a lot! But he needs time, he's outstanding on the pitch, in Germany we saw a lot of dribbling in tight areas, we didn't see that yet.

"But he can do better, he played a few nice passes, but defensively very stable in the challenges, tactically he can and must still improve."