Jurgen Klopp believes his exit plans won't have an adverse impact on Liverpool's players, branding any suggestion they might as "disrespectful".
Klopp will have served nearly nine years at Anfield by the time he walks away in late May
With Liverpool heading into the final third of the campaign as Premier League leaders, Carabao Cup finalists
Klopp
"We didn’t speak about it because I didn’t think it was necessary,"
"I didn’t say: ‘Look the outside world is watching us, how we react on this’. I just thought that would be slightly disrespectful to the boys because I was not in doubt at all, we didn't have to put an extra shift in, we didn’t have to put an extreme shift in.
"The boys always do. The Norwich game was good, really good. The Chelsea game was outstanding, it was outstanding.
"From start to finish, complete performance. That’s what you need, that’s what you want.
"I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with my situation. It’s not the first time the boys played like this.
"Is it the first time this season? I don’t know actually because we had a few slower starts this season but I really think since the Manchester United game (on December 17) we are really in it, we have better starts, we are after the opponent.
"For me it was just the next step for us during the development during the season. And I loved it."
Klopp added:
"If I wouldn’t have announced what I announced a week ago, what would be different? ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to win another Premier League?
"Wouldn’t it be nice to win that, wouldn’t it be nice to do that after all the things we did over the years and how close we were?’ It’s all the same.
"The only little difference is that now they say: ‘For Jurgen’. That’s the only thing. Nothing else changed and that is the mood I’m in.
"Of course I want to win the league. Do I know if we have a chance, really? Because it looks like we can be around it but there are so many games between now and then.
"We have to play them all and we have to win them all, which is absolutely crazy. I just can not think about it. I am not a dreamer.
"But if you ask me if it would be nice then, yes, very nice for everybody involved and the whole Liverpool world.
But it’s not difficult to block that out, that’s what I want to say, because it is no different to other years before.
"If it can generate a few extra percent it would be good but I’m not sure that’s needed because we are already at 100% and that is fine.
"We have only been ahead of them once properly and then we won it, and that was by 25 points at one point before Covid kicked in and all these wonderful people wanted to null and void the league! The best way to do it is to be out of reach, but it’s just not possible really.
"In the other fights when we were slightly behind them we lost the race. It was one point for five or six weeks and it stayed one point because we both won all of our games.
"You can’t compare. It’s really not too important. What we know is if you want to win the Premier League you better win an awful lot of football games."
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