Premier League: Liverpool never really got momentum this year, but future in good hands, says Jurgen Klopp

London: Jurgen Klopp insists the solid foundations he has laid at Liverpool will ensure his troubled club are never faced with a long absence from the Champions League. Klopp is fighting to salvage a dismal season by lifting Liverpool into the Premier League’s top four to guarantee qualification for next season’s Champions League. They are currently four points behind fourth-placed Chelsea after five successive home defeats. If Liverpool cannot finish in the top four, the soon-to-be dethroned English champions will have to qualify for Europe’s elite club competition by winning the Champions League this term. They hold a 2-0 first leg lead against Leipzig in the last 16. But regardless of Liverpool’s fate this season, Klopp is convinced the six-time Champions League winners won’t go back to the wilderness years when they spent six campaigns from 2010-11 either in the Europa League or out of Europe completely. “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,” Klopp said. “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 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 loss of Champions League football would mean Liverpool take a significant financial hit on top of the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic. It could also affect the composition of the squad in the summer transfer window. But Klopp struck a hard line when asked if players for whom the Champions League was a priority might consider leaving. “I know we have loyalty from the players. It is not a situation where a player in the squad says, ‘We are not in the Champions League so I have to leave’. That will not happen. I know them well enough to know that,” he said. “The club is in a different situation and it will not be an issue with new players I can say that. “We said it years back if a player does not want to come to us because we don’t play Champions League next season then I don’t want him. “And if a player wants to leave because we don’t play Champions League then I don’t want him. It is not a personal thing, but it is always like this.”