Jurgen Klopp has urged Liverpool to show their “real face” over the final six games of the season – but is refusing to entertain a late push for the top four.
The Reds moved to within six points of the Champions League qualification places when they came from behind to earn a 2-1 Premier League win at West Ham United on Wednesday evening.
A third successive victory means Klopp’s side now stand in sixth place, just a point adrift of Aston Villa in fifth and ahead on goal difference from Tottenham Hotspur, who they entertain on Sunday.
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And while believing Liverpool can still extract some reward from a difficult campaign, the Reds boss simply wants continued consistency from his players.
“I want us at least for a few weeks to show our real face and not the nice one, the ugly one, the nice one, the ugly one,” said Klopp. “We have done it for three-and-a-half games – the second half against Arsenal was brilliant – all in a different way. Tonight the first half I liked the most for a long, long time.
“The way we controlled the game, we have played here many times and it is always tough. Result-wise it looked better from time to time but the goals we scored were counter-attacks and stuff like that. Tonight we controlled the game in a way we haven’t before against West Ham and I really liked that.”
Asked about the top four, Klopp said: “I can’t see the race yet, I can’t, because we are not in a position for a race yet. The only thing we can do is win football games. If that puts pressure on other teams, it’s not in our hands as we don’t play them. We play Tottenham (and Villa) and that’s it from that area I think. If they (the teams above) win all their games then that’s it, but I don’t really think about that.
“I want us to finish the season as good as somehow possible. I want to take something out of the season for next season. If that is European competition, great. If not, we have to accept it as well and go from there.”
Lucas Paqueta fired West Ham into a 12th-minute lead only for Cody Gakpo to equalise six minutes later, before the recalled Joel Matip powered in a header for the winner midway through the second half.
“I liked the performance a lot, for a big part of the first half we were exceptional,” said Klopp. “We controlled the game from the beginning and pretty much made one mistake and bang, 1-0 down. A great goal – what a screamer.
“But we stayed calm, kept playing, scored our screamer as well and controlled the game. It felt like we had around 80% possession. It was difficult as the crowd were waiting for a lot of challenges (from West Ham) and we played around that. The second half I liked as well. We had to really dig in deep then, because of the physicality of West Ham there is always a chance to come back if you don’t kill the game and we didn’t.
“We had massive chances at set-pieces and I didn’t understand how we didn’t take them, then we scored a wonderful goal from a set-piece.”
West Ham boss David Moyes was adamant his side should have been awarded a penalty late on after the ball struck a falling Thiago Alcantara on the hand.
And Klopp said: “I thought he just fell on the ball but I can understand that Moyesy sees that probably completely differently.
“But in the end if you look at the game we are the deserved winner. With a point I’d be happy with the game given the performance, but with the win I’m happy with both the performance and the result.”
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