Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has insisted he will not prioritise one competition over another in search for trophies, after comments made by Gary Neville.
Last week former Manchester United defender Neville told The Times Liverpool should focus on their quest for the Premier League title this season, kicking the Champions League into touch.
Including the wins over Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool are set to play six games this month across three competitions with the Champions League and League Cup starting soon.
But, despite the potential building up of fixtures which comes with progression in these cup competitions, Klopp has hit back at Neville’s advice.
“How should that work? What do we do? We don’t play Champions League or what?” Klopp told reporters before Liverpool’s game against Spurs (via ESPN).
“Gary should come over and tell me exactly how that would work. How do you prepare a game and not focus on it? You bring your kids in the Champions League? That would be funny!
“I don’t know what he means with that, to be honest. We have to play football. A lot of people watch our games when we play Champions League and that’s our job that we do the best we can do in all these games.
“That’s what we try. I don’t know exactly what it means but to focus on one competition can only be if maybe you are already out of the competition nearly.
“If it’s late in the season that you see you have a chance to do that or do this and all that stuff.
“Last year, for example, we had no chance to focus on one competition because we had to qualify for the Champions League and I don’t think that even Gary Neville would have said: ‘Quarterfinals of the Champions League, let City win.’
“It doesn’t work like this. I don’t want to be too critical because I don’t know exactly how he said it but sitting in an office and talking about football is completely different to doing the job, to be honest. But it’s an opinion.”
Liverpool are currently top of the Premier League table, having won all five of their opening games of the new season – the first time the club have done so since 1990.
Up next for the Reds is the start of their new Champions League campaign, with last season’s runners-up taking on Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield on Tuesday.
The post Klopp hits back at Gary Neville’s Champions League comments appeared first on Squawka News.
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