Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp (L) has urged his side to build on a "wonderful base" and take the final steps toward success this season. With seven league games to go, Liverpool sit top of the Premier League table, two points clear of champions Manchester City, though City have a game in hand.
Having not won the league since 1990, Klopp's side have more points than ever at this stage of the season and are desperate to end their barren run. But with a Champions League quarter-final against Porto to come, they are fighting for trophies on two fronts and Klopp said it was time to enjoy the run-in. "It is exciting, absolutely," Klopp told Liverpool's website in an interview published Wednesday. "That's what we were always talking about - a season is like that, you constantly prepare a basis for the final weeks. "We are now in the final weeks and there will be no interruption any more, there will only be game after game after game and they all are very, very important." "We created a wonderful base, now let's use it."
Liverpool will welcome Tottenham in the league on Sunday and then travel to Southampton before hosting Porto in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
Klopp knows every team his side will face has something to play for, which makes their job even tougher. "On the one side, opponents fight for the Champions League spots, and on the other they will fight (to stay in) the league."
Klopp will have a full squad from which to choose, with defender Joe Gomez back in training after three months out and midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain pushing for a return. "Now we are back from the international break, the boys are coming step by step back as well, so from Thursday on I think we will be complete," he said.