The Times - UK (2022-05-17)

the times | Tuesday May 17 2022 2GM 63

Sport

inside today

PM criticises Klopp over

national anthem boos

News, page 17

Mikel Arteta tore into his Arsenal
players after the 2-0 defeat by Newcas-
tle United that has taken Champions
League qualification out of their hands.
“We have to put our heads down and
swallow every poison possible,” he said.
“We didn’t compete, we lost every duel
and we never got into the game.”
Granit Xhaka, the Arsenal midfield-
er, was even more scathing of his side’s
performance, describing it as a
“disaster” and saying his team did not
deserve Champions League football.
“Normally I sit here, I can defend [the
team] but today Newcastle were 100
times better than us in every depart-
ment, from the beginning to the end,
and it is very hard to accept it,” Arteta,
the Arsenal manager, said. “We put
ourselves in trouble. Newcastle de-
served to win, probably by a bigger mar-
gin. We were extremely poor in every
department. We were nowhere near.”
Arsenal, who lost 3-0 to Tottenham
Hotspur last week, need to beat Aston
Villa on Sunday and hope that Spurs
lose to Norwich City to claim the final
Champions League qualification place.
Should Spurs draw, Arsenal would need
a 15-goal swing to seal fourth.
“We need to win and we need a defeat
for them,” Arteta said. “In football any-
thing can happen. Tomorrow we start
again. I am responsible. If someone has
created an expectation this year, it is
those players and I will always defend
them. We know we didn’t cope with it.”
Xhaka said he was struggling to de-
scribe how bad the display was. “From

James Milner confident

in team’s resolve for the

latest test of mind and

body in an epic season,

Paul Joyce writes

Southampton v Liverpool

Premier League Kick-off Tonight, 7.45pm

TV Live, Sky Sports Main Event

Radio BBC 5 Live Referee Martin Atkinson

Southampton (probable)

(4-4-2) A McCarthy

A Becker

K Walker-

Peters J Bednarek M SalisuR Perraud

K Tsimikas I Konaté J Matip J Gomez

N Redmond M Elyounoussi

O Romeu

C Adams A Broja

J Ward-Prowse

N Keïta J Milner C Jones

L Díaz R Firmino D Jota

(4-3-3)

Liverpool (probable)

Liverpool aim to keep title

race alive without key trio

place, and to play in finals and win ten

medals. If you said that [number] at the

start of my career, I’d have taken it.

“It’s a special group of players and a

special group of people to share these

things with in the dressing room. After

the game, I said to Trent [Alexander-

Arnold]: ‘Your cabinet is pretty full, but

don’t get bored of it!’

“What an incredible player he is, but

he’s lucky that he’s come into a team

that is so good. He deserves it, but you

never know when things are going to

change, so you have to enjoy it while

it’s here.”

Milner’s contract expires this sum-

mer and he has yet to decide whether to

stay at Liverpool or seek more regular

playing opportunities elsewhere.

He points to Klopp as the motivator

supreme, someone who has instilled a

mentality which demands this team

constantly strive for more. But his own

absence would be keenly felt within a

squad whose standards also cannot be

compromised while he is around.

“It comes from the manager,” Milner

said. “Since he’s been here — the group

of players he has, the desire and the way

we train.

“It starts from pre-season, the double

sessions. It’s like ‘Are we going again?

Are we going again?’ It’s just relentless,

and that’s where it starts. That’s why we

can keep going.”

They must do so again tonight and

the calibre of players who are missing

will not undermine belief. In the recent

past, Liverpool have usually found a

way when the stakes are high.

“If you go back to Barcelona, that

famous night, look at the players who

were missing then,” Milner added of the

2019 Champions League semi-final

comeback when Salah and Roberto

Firmino were absent.

“That shows a great mentality within

the squad, it shows how well we train,

how well we’re coached. We changed it

round and we found a way, and that’s

got us to a Champions League final.”

City, who drew 2-2 with West Ham

United on Sunday, have not dropped

points in successive league games since

December 2020 and Klopp does not

expect that to change when Aston Villa

visit the Etihad this weekend — but his

side will keep on pushing.

He added that securing the FA Cup to

go with February’s Carabao Cup

success meant the “pressure is off”. In

reality, it never goes away.

2020, has returned to the club until

the end of the season to help with

players’ recovery.

Yet there was a promise that “the

boys who start the game will go with all

they have” and when the Liverpool

manager looks to Milner to step into

the midfield a sense of reassurance will

wash over him.

The 36-year-old came on in the

74th minute against Chelsea, harness-

ing all of his quality and nous to help

secure the tenth winners’ medal of his

career and his sixth since moving to

Anfield from City on a free

transfer in 2015.

Milner admitted he

found it “baffling” Liver-

pool had not been more

successful prior to his

arrival and, while he is

hungry for more, expe-

rience taught him to sa-

vour Saturday’s moment.

“I went into the dressing

room afterwards and all the

lads are straight on their

phones,” he said. “I was like ‘we’ve

just won the FA Cup!’ You get 40 to 50

messages to deal with, it’s great to see

the families, the kids with the medals

round their necks. It’s very special.

“You’re very lucky to play in any final,

you’re lucky to be a footballer in the first

In the aftermath of Liverpool’s latest

trophy success James Milner treated

himself to a can of Coke. The full-fat

version, because, he said, “Diet Coke is

worse for you.”

Elsewhere, Jürgen Klopp joined in

the “childish” celebrations in the Wem-

bley dressing room after Saturday’s FA

Cup final triumph over Chelsea in

which everyone was “running around”

like crazy.

The party atmosphere continued on

the flight from London back to

Merseyside, with the squad landing at

Liverpool John Lennon airport at about

midnight. If coming back to earth with

a bump had never felt so good, then

reality would quickly kick in.

“Until the plane landed I was in a

good mood,” Klopp said. “The next

morning, at 10.30am, there was a

Southampton analysis meeting. And

nobody came late.”

There remains little chance for

Liverpool to catch their breath in this

season of seasons, with tonight’s trip to

St Mary’s switching the focus back to

the Premier League and their attempts

to cut Manchester City’s four-point

lead at the top and ensure the title race

goes down to the wire.

Even allowing for the high-profile

absences of Virgil van Dijk, Mo-

hamed Salah and Fabinho

due to minor injuries,

which are not expected to

threaten their participa-

tion in the Champions

League final at the end

of the month, Klopp

knows he must ring the

changes after 120

energy-sapping minutes

and a penalty shoot-out

against Chelsea.

He highlighted the contrast

between his own players, who are “pret-

ty much sleeping on massage beds”

before their 61st game, and Southamp-

ton, who have not played since May 7.

So much so that their former physio

Christopher Rohrbeck, who left in

Southampton

v Liverpool

Premier League

Tonight, 7.45pm

TV: Sky Sports Main

Radio: BBC 5 Live

LEE SMITH/ACTION IMAGES/REUTERS

Mbappé’s contract expires in June

Paul Joyce

Northern Football Correspondent

Klopp: Mbappé cost too much for us

persuade Mbappé to remain with them

and have presented their own terms.

Klopp has been a longstanding ad-

mirer of Mbappé, while the player has

previously described Liverpool as a

“machine”. However, the eye-watering

cost of any deal is far beyond the remit

of a club that has discussed a contract

extension with their striker Mo-

hamed Salah for much of the season.

Asked whether there had been

contact with Mbappé’s camp as the

forward deliberated his future,

the Liverpool manager said:

“Of course we are interested

in Kylian Mbappé, we are not

blind. We like him and if you

don’t like him then you have

to question yourself. But, no,

we are not, we cannot be part

of these battles. There must

be other clubs involved and

that is fine. He is a great player.”

Liverpool’s immediate concern is

beating Southampton tonight and cut-

ting Manchester City’s lead at the top of

the Premier League to one point before

the final weekend of the season.

Virgil van Dijk and Salah will both be

unavailable, having been substituted in

the FA Cup final penalty shoot-out

success over Chelsea, and there will be

a host of other changes to protect the

fitness of key players.

Klopp said that Van Dijk (knee) and

Salah (groin) will be fit for the

Champions League final with Real

Madrid in Paris on May 28 and could

yet feature against Wolverhampton

Wanderers on Sunday at Anfield. “I

have no doubt about the final,” he said.

Jürgen Klopp has said that the finances

involved in signing Kylian Mbappé

prevented Liverpool from proceeding

with their interest in recruiting the

France superstar.

Mbappé’s contract with Paris

Saint-Germain is due to expire

this summer, with Real Madrid

increasingly confident of signing

the 23-year-old.

Sources in Spain have

indicated Mbappé could

earn a net wage of

€30 million (about

£25 million) a year at

the Bernabéu, with a

multimillion-pound

payment also going

to the player’s rep-

resentatives as com-

mission for any transfer.

PSG are still hoping to Mba

of a club t

extensio

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Real Madrid

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We do not deserve Champions

League football, admits Xhaka

the first minute to the 90th we didn’t

deserve to be on the pitch,” he said.

“I can’t explain why. We didn’t do

what the game plan was, [didn’t] listen

to the coach. What happened was a dis-

aster. You don’t deserve to play [in the]

Champions League or even Europa

League. If you’re nervous, stay on the

bench or stay at home. You need people

to have the balls to come here and play.

“We’re disappointed for the [fans]

who came here. The dressing room is

quiet. We are waiting for six years [for

Champions League football]. We had

everything in our hands. We looked like

we were in the position where Newcas-

tle are, and they were where we are.”

Newcastle moved into 12th with the

2-0 victory, their first against any of the

top-six clubs this season. “It was a bril-

liant way for us to sign off here,” Eddie

Howe, the Newcastle head coach, said.

“I’m very, very pleased with the per-

formance. It is our best performance by

some distance since I was at the club.”

Xhaka called the display “a disaster”

Martin Hardy

Nuno Tavares’s
difficult first season

for Arsenal continued

last night when the

left back’s foul throw

led to Newcastle’s

opening goal. “We

know that’s where it

starts,” a clearly

displeased Mikel

Arteta said afterwards.

It all began

with a foul

throw...

s.