Liverpool Boss Says Battle Over Second Place

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes his team is playing to finish second in the Premier League, saying Manchester City had the title sealed.

Pep Guardiola’s City have surged 11 points clear atop the table, winning 16 of their 17 games while scoring 52 goals.

Klopp feels there is no longer a title fight - not even for second-placed United - with City so far clear at the top, Goal reported.

“This season nobody is really fighting any more for the title. I don’t think United is,” the German said ahead of his team’s trip to Bournemouth on Sunday.

“We will all try to come as close as possible but if City doesn’t have any drop then they will probably win it so does that mean all the others have to stop? To be the best of the rest could be a fantastic target. So it is to try to have the best position in the table which for us for the last - I don’t know how many years - is probably third or second.”

Back-to-back draws have seen Liverpool fall to fifth in the Premier League, four points behind third-placed Chelsea and seven adrift of United, which is second.

Klopp believes his team can be similar to his 2012-13 Borussia Dortmund outfit, which finished 25 points adrift of Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga but almost won the Champions League final between the teams at Wembley, losing 2-1.

“We cannot chase City, like we couldn’t chase Bayern in these times but we could have beaten it in the Champions league final, that’s 100%,” he said.

“We were not worse, it was an open game and nobody saw in this game a team 25 points ahead. We didn’t play a bad season; we got to the Champions League final and had some of our best moments in our life in that campaign,” he added.