Failure to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League does not mean that Liverpool FC’s credentials of a regular in Europe’s elite club competition would be dealt a major blow, says the Reds boss Jurgen Klopp.
Klopp’s side have fallen behind in the widely-contested race to secure a top-four finish this season in the Premier League standings and ensure their participation in the 2021-22 Champions League campaign after recent results in domestic football have left the Merseysiders reeling in the seventh spot.
Ahead of his team playing hosts to Fulham over the coming weekend, Klopp insisted in his pre-match press conference that Liverpool FC did not harbour fears of establishing the tag of Europa League regulars should they be forced to compete in Europe’s second-tier club competition across the forthcoming campaign.
“This club will not be a regular out of the Champions League – this year is difficult, we know that, but the potential and the power of the club is a completely different one.
“I do not know the team 10 years ago but we are ready for a battle in this era, and with the team we have together.
“Seasons have momentum and we never really got it this year, that is true, but this club is in a really good position.
“In a difficult time obviously, but in a better position than other clubs I would say.
“I obviously did not think about what happened in the past but what I can say is nobody has to worry about the future of the club because it is in good hands and has a really good team together, and so that is obviously the basis for a good future.”
The defeat to fellow top-four challengers Chelsea on Thursday night at Anfield meant that Jurgen Klopp’s under-fire outfit risked falling further down the top-flight ladder should Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa up their game in their respective games in hand.
Liverpool FC are now four points adrift of Thomas Tuchel’s Londoners in the standings, with the Blues clinching the fourth spot after their recent win over the Merseysiders.
