Everything Jurgen Klopp said on Taki Minamino, Ivan Toney, safe standing ahead of Liverpool’s Brentford clash

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp. Picture: Liverpool FC/ YoutubeLiverpool boss Jurgen Klopp. Picture: Liverpool FC/ Youtube
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp. Picture: Liverpool FC/ Youtube

Jurgen Klopp has addressed the media ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday (17.30 BST).

Here’s everything the Reds boss said during his pre-match press conference.

Thiago’s fitness

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It’s not 100% clear [when he will be back]. It’s a muscle issue in the calf.

After the international break, probably. I don’t think anything earlier is possible but we will see.

Naby Keita’s fitness

Nothing really serious but keeps him out of the next game for sure and maybe a bit longer. It's nothing serious but obviously painful and we have to see how we can deal with that.

It's not cool when the players have had a good pre-season and could have played a lot of games but that happens throughout the season.

Kaide Gordon, Conor Bradley and Tyler Morton’s performances against Norwich

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Very impressed. We had a great pre-season and lots of them with us, some for the whole time and some for only the first three weeks.

Kaide Gordon on the ball at Norwich. Picture: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty ImagesKaide Gordon on the ball at Norwich. Picture: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images
Kaide Gordon on the ball at Norwich. Picture: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images

It gives you a massive insight into their skill set and what they doing, how they react to other situations.

The staff at the academy are doing a brilliant job. I know managers have to do that sometimes because it's appropriate to say but they do a brilliant job.

There are loads of real talents coming up and three of them had a go at Norwich.

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Not only I was impressed but everyone was. Kaide is 16 and playing an adult football game - you don't find thousands of players who are ready to do that.

The other boys who are 18 playing as mature as they played is good for us and them.

There's a lot to improve, a lot to learn but I'm really happy about that.

The challenge of Brentford

Absolutely great. I watched the press conference of Thomas Frank and it was one of the most entertaining things I've watched for the past few years.

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The football they play is incredible. Thomas is doing a brilliant job, the organisation is doing a brilliant job in terms of how they recruit, how different they are and how, even with less money, it's possible to create something really special.

Brentford boss Thomas Frank. Picture: Alex Burstow/Getty ImagesBrentford boss Thomas Frank. Picture: Alex Burstow/Getty Images
Brentford boss Thomas Frank. Picture: Alex Burstow/Getty Images

It reminds me of my time at Mainz when we had no money and had to be creative in the transfer market. There's a massive difference between the money Brentford have and Mainz has but it shows it's still possible.

It's a nice situation. No-one expects them to get anything from the game but they have a chance. It's football

They're an incredibly well-drilled football team. They play 3-5 and everyone knows what to do and everyone is ready to make the extra yard.

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I saw them celebrating after the Arsenal game and it was great to see how much it meant to them.

It will be a tough one and rightly so. That's football, we all have a chance and we all have to go for it.

It's a really important game and I'm looking forward to it.

Impressive defensive start to the season

Alisson in moments, he's just made brilliant saves, it's not like anyone hasn't had shots on targets against us.

As a unit, so far we've defended pretty well.

We said before the start of the season, no-one wanted to hear it, we had three new players without buying them - Joe [Gomez], Joel [Matip] and Virgil [van Dijk]

Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk. Picture: Shaun Botterill/Getty ImagesLiverpool defender Virgil van Dijk. Picture: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk. Picture: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
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Crystal Palace was the last time we changed [the defence] completely. They'd never played together before but it's not just that, we need a clear defending attitude. We had that last year and when you have that and the players you can rely on, it looks good.

Last year, when Rhys [Williams] and Nats [Phillips] played in the last line, they defended really well. We needed time to adapt and we had time in pre-season to work on it.

That doesn't mean come match-day 38 we will have conceded only one goal but we are more stable and that's what we need to be successful.

If you want to be successful, you need to be consistent. If you want to be consistent, you need to defend well because you can't fly every day and score an awful lot of goals. You have to defend and grind out results sometimes.

Brentford’s strike force

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They have and have another striker who scored four goals in midweek. Benrahma played there, Ollie Watkins played there with [Bryan] Mbeumo now they've found the next one, Ivan [Toney].

They work as a unit extremely well. Giving a player like Ivan the trust, you can see what you can get out of a player and that's the case. He was on the market and I'm not sure how many Championship and nearly Premier League teams were going for him. Brentford did.

They sold two of the best strikers in the Championship and now are two of the best strikers in the Premier League, but brought in the next one.

It's not about the problems they have, it's about the solution and they have a brilliant solution.

Iavn Toney celebrates scoring for Brentford against Wolves. Picture: Shaun Botterill/Getty ImagesIavn Toney celebrates scoring for Brentford against Wolves. Picture: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
Iavn Toney celebrates scoring for Brentford against Wolves. Picture: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
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The whole team, they have really tall centre-backs, speedy, fully-committed wing-backs and the whole team defends like it's the last game of their life. It's really impressive and congratulations so far with the start they've had. It's good and I'm pretty sure they're not satisfied.

Two really lively, high-intense teams will face each other. The home team has the crowd and we have to calm the atmosphere for only that day because I hope they have the best season of their lives, I really like what they're doing.

Takumi Minamino

Everything has helped Taki. He's an outstanding talent.

He's gone from Asia to Salzburg to Liverpool when Liverpool were not in the best phase of their life. It was not like we were flying.

He came in when everything was difficult when had no supporters in the stadium then you need to get used to the Premier League.

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It has helped massively he went to Southampton. He came back a completely different player.

You can see his finishes are incredible, how he connects the game, he is a different package now and that was really helpful.

Players need time and we just don't give them enough. He used that time and that's good.

Takumi Minamino celebrates scoring Liverpool’s first goal at Norwich. Picture: Stephen Pond/Getty ImagesTakumi Minamino celebrates scoring Liverpool’s first goal at Norwich. Picture: Stephen Pond/Getty Images
Takumi Minamino celebrates scoring Liverpool’s first goal at Norwich. Picture: Stephen Pond/Getty Images

Goals from corners

They're always very important. If it doesn't work out, sometimes you don't know why. Here an inch, there an inch, a lack of conviction, the cross is not right, the runs are not right but they're not obvious mistakes.

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So you think: right, what's gone wrong. Then you have to change a few details and go again.

Two years ago, we were exceptional with set-pieces. Last year, we didn't have that. We always work on it.

We have to get it settled and not be too creative when no-one knows which routine to use. We have a nice base which we use from time to time but when Virg, Joel and Ibrou [Konate] can be a threat then that helps.

It's not that we started working on set-pieces, we work on it all the time. You just don't see that always like we don't see that always. At the moment, we have a good moment and long may it continue.

Safe standing

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In Germany, there were a few discussions in the past where we might have to change a bit. We cannot have 27,000 in one stand and these kind of things.

The reason why in England and the Premier League was for good reasons and things had to be reconsidered.

After quite a long time, it's a good moment about how to get back to where we were.

Football is really about atmosphere and the more people in the stadium, the better the atmosphere. The more people who are in the right position, the better the atmosphere.

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People on the Kop, I'm pretty sure, stand most of the time anyway. It's good we talk about it again and might reintroduce and test it again.

I'm pretty sure the people are responsible enough to do it the right way.

The stadiums are completely different to when all the sad, sad things happened. The construction is different and I like the idea and really excited about how much better the atmosphere could be at Anfield if we had safe standing.

I'd be really surprised if it could be but we will see.