Premier League top-four race not over yet, warns Liverpool’s Klopp<\/span><\/h4>\n

Premier League top-four race not over yet, warns Liverpool’s Klopp:\u00a0Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told his players to gird their loins for the Premier League run-in after they retained control of their top-four destiny with victory at Watford.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Emre Can’s stupendous mid-air scissors kick earned Liverpool a 1-0 win at Vicarage Road on Monday that provisionally gave them a three-point cushion over Manchester City in third place.<\/span><\/p>\n

Victory in Liverpool’s last three games — against Southampton, West Ham United and Middlesbrough — will guarantee them a Champions League berth, but Klopp said there was still much work to be done.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We need to stay focused, we need to stay concentrated,” said the German.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We have pressure until the end of the season, but that’s a positive pressure. It means we are fighting for something.<\/span><\/p>\n

“So we’ll do everything for the points we can get, but it won’t be easy.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If people think we already have the three points against Southampton then they’ve not seen them play this season. Another really strong side.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Nobody can take these points away from us tonight and now we have time to work and prepare for the Southampton game (on Sunday).”<\/span><\/p>\n

Can settled proceedings in first-half stoppage time, meeting Lucas Leiva’s floated pass with a picture-book volley that flew past Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can has battled a niggling calf problem for the past 12 months and Klopp praised the Germany midfielder for gritting his teeth and fighting through it.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If he couldn’t be positive after this goal, something would be wrong,” Klopp said with a smile.<\/span><\/p>\n

“He’s a good player. He’d had a calf problem, but we couldn’t leave him out. We had a lot of talks about this.<\/span><\/p>\n

“People wondered what was wrong with him, but we needed him in these moments. He said, ‘I’m going to try.’<\/span><\/p>\n

“Sometimes he wasn’t as good as he could have been, but now those problems are sorted, he’s physically strong and he can build on these performances.<\/span><\/p>\n

“And if he can score goals like this it makes even more sense.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Liverpool lost playmaker Philippe Coutinho to a dead leg early in the game, which saw Adam Lallana make his return from a month-long lay-off as a 13th-minute replacement for the Brazilian.<\/span><\/p>\n

Klopp offered no prognosis on Coutinho’s condition, only to say that the injury — sustained in a collision with Watford’s Adrian Mariappa — had been “really painful”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Liverpool also hit the bar through a dipping Lallana volley and Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes had to make several second-half saves to keep them at bay.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the hosts came within millimetres of snatching a stoppage-time equaliser when centre-back Sebastian Prodl thundered an effort against the crossbar.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I said to the players after the game, if they want to kill me, that’s a good way to try it. I thought I felt something in this area,” Klopp said, gesturing to his heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watford manager Walter Mazzarri, whose side remain 13th in the table, said the final score was not an accurate reflection of the game.<\/span><\/p>\n

“If you look at all Liverpool’s games, they usually create five or six clear chances,” said the Italian.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Today we hardly conceded any chances and we also had a couple of chances, so overall it was a good performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I usually don’t like to speak about luck, but today we were completely unlucky.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Apart from Prodl’s shot against the crossbar, there were two incorrect offsides against (Stefano) Okaka and (Troy) Deeney. We played a really good game.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Premier League top-four race not over yet, warns Liverpool’s Klopp<\/p>\n

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Premier League top-four race not over yet, warns Liverpool’s Klopp Premier League top-four race not over yet, warns Liverpool’s Klopp:\u00a0Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told his players to gird their loins for the Premier League run-in after they retained control of their top-four destiny with victory at Watford. Emre Can’s stupendous mid-air scissors kick earned Liverpool […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":10750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[490],"tags":[4963,3784,362,4794],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n