Jurgen Klopp believes this is the week for Liverpool to give their season “a little push” and propel them towards the top four in the Premier League. The Merseyside club currently sit nine points off fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur but have two games in hand.
The Liverpool manager labelled the coming days as a “super important week” given his team host Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday before facing Manchester United on Sunday, which is also being played at Anfield.
Three clean sheets and seven points from nine represents an upturn in form after four league games without a victory, but the quality on show during Saturday’s goalless draw at Crystal Palace felt like a regression and hard on the heels of a heavy 5-2 defeat to Real Madrid in last week’s Champions League last-16 tie.
The visit of Wolves will also bring back bad memories for Klopp’s players. Liverpool lost 3-0 at Molineux in early February in what was considered a new low point in a season riddled with inconsistency. Klopp hopes these two successive home games will kickstart a fruitful return from their final 15 league matches.
“It’s 45 points [available]. It would be a really good moment [to go on a run]. Yes, you can imagine, that’s exactly what we want to do,” he said. “We have got seven points from these [last] three games.
“The last one we drew and I know I said it’s the same game like we played before but without scoring and people said ‘But it’s the most important stuff’. I know. You cannot change the other facts as well.
“It’s a super important week. We cannot ignore that. We have two home games. I would love to give the season a little push in this week and we need results for that. And for results we need good performances.
“The main difference is we will play at Anfield and we have to make that count. It’s a long period between games, we want to put it right. But I am more focused on giving the season a proper push, we need to find a steady mood.”
Familiar foes await Liverpool
Liverpool, who could have Darwin Nunez and Ibrahima Konate back available, have also faced Wolves twice in the FA Cup this season, with Liverpool winning the replay 1-0. Given this is the fourth game between the two teams in 53 days, Klopp conceded that there is not much he doesn’t know about Julen Lopetegui’s side.
“We know a lot about each other and we know it won’t be easy,” Klopp said. “There won’t be the most surprising information and we have to make sure we are ready.
“We have to make sure that we really squeeze everything out of this season that we can get. I don’t know in this moment what it will be but the obvious spots are not too far away from us and we will see which one we will pick up.”