Over the past six seasons, Manchester City have won the Premier League five times and Jurgen Klopp says they have the potential to secure the league title this season.
According to the Liverpool boss, Manchester City are the only team with a realistic chance of winning the Premier League title this season.
Klopp’s assessment comes in the wake of Liverpool’s disappointing campaign last season, where they finished fifth in the league and failed to secure any trophies.
“Nobody besides maybe City can have the real target to become champions again this year” Klopp said ahead of Liverpool’s match against Bayern
“All the other teams fight for the Champions League and that’s what we do as well. The earlier you qualify for the Champions League, the higher you are in the table. If you are second and in striking distance to first then you might have a chance. I don’t know who will be there”.
“We need points and a lot of them. Yes, a club the size of Liverpool has to be successful. Otherwise the club has to find different solutions”.
“For us it’s not about that (the title). It’s about Bayern, Darmstadt and then Chelsea. Those are the games I’m thinking about”.
“As important as getting the best players together is creating an atmosphere and spirit and a common desire that we can really use as a basis to make the best possible season. If we do that we’ll be in a good place”.
Following the below-par season last term, Klopp acknowledged that Liverpool’s defense must improve significantly if they aim to reclaim a spot in the Champions League and narrow the gap between themselves and the likes of Manchester City and Arsenal.
“From the first day we have been back for pre-season, I’ve tried to make it really clear our defending has to be at a completely different level to last season” he said.
“We had better do that tomorrow or we will have real problems”.
“It is the most difficult game for us tomorrow, definitely. We saw footage of Bayern’s previous games in Japan including against Manchester City”.
“Bayern are traditionally a really good team. They have four world-class centre-halves, two world-class midfield pairings, speed up front and technique, finishing skills. That’s quite impressive”.
“But we want a strong opponent so this is definitely the toughest test for us this pre-season. That’s what we need at this moment. I’m excited. I am able to see where we are, how we can adapt to the quality of the opponent”.
