The Times - UK (2022-05-17)

(Antfer) #1

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

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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.
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