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Klopp: Liverpool an attractive club for transfers even without UCL football

  /  autty

Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool are an attractive club for new players even without Champions League football, and explained more on the Reds' recent upturn in form.

After a largely below-par season by Liverpool's standards, they have now won their last six Premier League games and are making a late bid to finish in the top four.

Heading into the weekend's games, they sit in fifth place on 62 points - one behind Manchester United in fourth, although the Reds have played a game more.

With around two weeks of the Premier League left to play, Liverpool face the prospect of no Champions League football next season, ahead of a vital summer in the transfer market.

However, Klopp was adamant that this would not hinder their recruitment process, adding that Liverpool as a club will be enough of an incentive.

Speaking ahead of the trip to Leicester on Monday Night Football, the German said: "When I talk to a player - if I'm allowed to talk to a player, which it barely the case, but in the moment when you are - you realise then it's already clarified because we cannot tell anybody in the moment that we are definitely in the Champions League. If he's talking to us, it's probably already clear that he knows about that situation.

"If you join club, it's that you want to reach something together with the club. We have to fight to be part of the Champions League, we have to fight for trophies and if you want to be part of that, you are more than welcome.

"There is one thing we cannot guarantee this year and it is Champions League football, all the rest is the same as it was before.

"It is a fantastic club with a really good football team and even better, hopefully, next year. I've barely faced the situation where you talk with a player and everything is great and he says, 'okay see you if...' That doesn't happen really often.

"We are still Liverpool and we are really attractive for a lot of players, we should not forget that. That's why I'm not concerned about that fact.

"Everything is of course more difficult without Champions League, especially in long term, and we have to not do these things more often.

"But apart from that, it's okay the situation we are in from a talking point of view and convincing point of view."

Klopp on form improvement: 'We changed things at right moment'

Winning the last six Premier League games is the best run Liverpool have been on in the league this season and Klopp offered some insight into how it has happened.

He credited changes in training to the upturn in form, adding that it forms part of their preparations for next season as well as finishing off the current campaign strongly.

"We tried to give ourselves the chance for a fresh start with a lot of different football things," Klopp explained.

"We had kind of a new start... we had eight or nine days of training between games. We wanted to use that time to start the new season already, not knowing where it would lead us to, but we didn't want to waste more time.

"It was a breath of fresh air for all of us, not just players, but the coaches as well. Since then, things changed. We worked on different subjects, but the basic principles stay - intensity, counter-pressing, generally intensive football - but we want to control the game differently, protect our game differently in different formations, build up differently, so there are so many things that are different.

"It was really good fun for us to think about, work on it, to create something new for us. Then the results came in, that's for sure no complete coincidence. We know that we needed luck in moments as well, luck we maybe didn't have in other games. Now we are in the situation we are in and we have three more games to play.

"We [have] already prepared next season, but knowing this season there is a lot to play for and that's what we'll do.

"Sometimes, you need to change big things to get a turnaround. When a coach is in for seven and a half years, that's rare and usually in that time, some clubs have three, four or five coaches, which isn't great, but it means it's always new.

"We were really successful until last year with a specific way, it wasn't all the same stuff but it was a way of play which we knew about that was successful and works out for us. Then all of a sudden, it didn't. It was always clear we would have to change things, but that was at least one good thing of the season that we had a good reason to change things.

"Sometimes you need these moments and when a coach is in for that long, you need to change things anyway and in right moment. I think we caught the right moment, maybe for this season a bit late, but in general, I think it was the right moment.

"This period is super important for us, because it gives us an idea of how it can look [next season]. We all know we are at the early stages, we have to train a lot, work a lot, make things more natural and clear for the boys for what we want exactly.

"That's why it's so important we started it early and not have to play a season and end up in position 10 or 11 and from the first day, we have to prove everything changed. That everybody knows already that we are going in the right direction is really helpful."

Neville: Liverpool must back Klopp in transfer window this summer

Sky Sports' Gary Neville on The Gary Neville Podcast:

"Jurgen Klopp has got to be supported. He was supported when they fell short by being able to push themselves in the transfer market, they'll have to go there again this summer.

"Other teams are going to invest, Klopp's strength over the last six or seven years has been the quality of football but also the strength of recruitment, he's been able to get the most out of players, who ultimately haven't cost stupid amounts, Van Dijk, Allison and Nunez aside.

"You look at those £20m, £30m signings, Jota, Salah, Mane, there are more of them, Robertson at left-back, they've been outstanding. They've been wonderful for Liverpool.

"They're going to have to do a bit of that, but also go and I think put some serious money down and get one or two serious players for Klopp.

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"He deserves that as a manager at Liverpool. He has shielded FSG in terms of net spend, yes they've been smart and it's what Sir Alex did to the Glazer family at Old Trafford where he'd say there was no value in the market, and Klopp has been quite prudent and pragmatic, he's not panicked and waited for players.

"That is the right way to do it, I don't think he would go out and be carefree and reckless all of a sudden, but there comes a point where he wants a player and they're going to have to put the money down and it's going to cost them significantly to get Klopp the players that he needs to get back to where he wants to be, right at the very top, where they've been in the last few years.

"They can't go back to him and say our targets are Champions League football. That might have been the case when he first came in, but he's seen glory - he's seen Champions League finals, Premier League titles, they can't go back and say top four is a successful season for Liverpool.

"That's not what their history is built on. Now it's about them demonstrating they've got the funds to start with, and then the courage to back him enormously in the transfer market, up against funds with huge resources and unlimited funds, it seems at times."

Liverpool's remaining fixtures

May 15: Leicester (A) - Premier League, kick-off 8pm, live on Sky Sports

May 20: Aston Villa (H) - Premier League, kick-off 3pm

May 28: Southampton (A) - Premier League, kick-off 4.30pm