INTERVIEW“This is a team that has now got experience of winning the
Champions League and the Super Cup, and Club World Cup off
the back of that. We’ve got that experience behind us and I feel
like this is a team that is hungry to keep going to win more. For
me, that’s definitely important.
“I’m privileged to be part of this group of players and I don’t
want to miss out on opportunities that come around.”
Becoming the first Liverpool team to retain the European Cup
since Bob Paisley’s side did so in 1978 following their maiden
success in 1977 is high up on the priority list. While trying to win
a first league title since 1990 attracts all the hype and headlines,
the resumption of Champions League football next month has
not gone unmentioned in the Liverpool dressing-room.
The players have a ‘one-game-at-a-time’ mantra instilled
by their manager, but in the relaxed setting of the team hotel
in Doha I asked Ox to look forward to the mouthwatering
Champions League clash against Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid.
The first leg takes place at the Wanda Metropolitano, a venue
that obviously holds happy memories for all Reds, so does he think
the fact that Liverpool won the Champions League final in Atleti’s
stadium will have any bearing when the Reds return to Madrid in
February?
“The boys have all been talking about going back to that stadium
in Madrid,” he smiled. “We don’t want to talk about that factor too
much, though, because they’ll be wanting to make it very different
to when we went there in June and lifted the trophy.
“They’ll be thinking: this is our home, we’re going to make sure it
isn’t as nice for them. So I don’t want to say too much about that,
but of course it is nice to go back to somewhere where you’ve got
good memories and are a little bit familiar with.
“It sounds simple, but sometimes when you go to an away ground
you’ve never been to before it feels different, it feels hostile, it