Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool’s 4-0 rout of West Ham proves they can cope with the pressure of fighting for Champions League qualification, but he warned his stars to guard against complacency.
Liverpool’s destiny is in their own hands after a dominant display at the London Stadium and victory over relegated Middlesbrough next Sunday will secure a top four finish in the Premier League.
If Arsenal drop points against Sunderland on Tuesday, Liverpool will make it back into Europe’s elite club competition before the last weekend of the season.
“Part of our life is to handle pressure, to ignore the bad part of pressure and to use the good part of pressure,” Klopp said.
“We drew in the last game with Southampton, we didn’t score with a penalty and maybe people say then: ‘They can’t deal with pressure.’
“I thought we saw really a convincing performance with no doubts about anything.
“But the first sentence the players said in the dressing room was: ‘One more time. One more game.’
“We will stay focused 100 per cent, we know about the difficulty of the next game, nobody will go into this game and underestimate it one per cent.”
Liverpool will be heavy favourites to beat Middlesbrough, but Klopp warned his players to stay focused.
“Middlesbrough have had a hard season, and it’s hard in a season like this to enjoy football,” he said.
“I’m pretty sure they’ll want to enjoy football at Anfield, they’ll want to try anything and that makes life difficult for us.
“If we can be as focused as today and as fluent and have as good movements as today, then it will be difficult for them.”
