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Jurgen Klopp is not thinking about a historic quadruple this season as he says Liverpool are “close to nothing” after winning the Carabao Cup.
Liverpool beat Chelsea 11-10 on penalties at Wembley on Sunday after a gripping goalless draw – the standard of which Klopp described as “insane”.
The Reds’ attention quickly turns to the FA Cup and a fifth-round tie against Norwich on Wednesday.
And Klopp will not look further ahead than that match, despite his side now being candidates for an unprecedented English quadruple.
With one trophy secured and the other domestic cup entering its final stages, Liverpool are also six points behind Manchester City in the Premier League with a game in hand and a trip to the Etihad Stadium to come, as well as leading Inter Milan 2-0 after the first leg of their Champions League last-16 encounter.
“The quadruple? It’s a wonderful story,” Klopp told a pre-match news conference. “No team yet in the history of English football ever won the quadruple, right? That’s because it’s really difficult.
“We won the Carabao Cup, we are behind City in the Premier League, we play Norwich tomorrow night after playing 120 minutes on Sunday, and we play West Ham.
“The fun part of [the media’s] job is you count the points before we play the games, but we still have to play them.
“It’s not that we are even close to think about any crazy stuff like that. We just want to try to make sure the boys are fit enough to face Norwich in a proper way.”
Pressed further on others backing Liverpool for a potential quadruple, Klopp said: “That people see us as having a chance, you could see it as a compliment, but I don’t need these kinds of compliments.
“It doesn’t feel like that. We don’t think, ‘oh, we are close to winning the quadruple’. We are close to nothing at the moment.
“We are still involved in now three competitions, that’s all we are – like some other teams as well.
“It’s better that people think we can do good things than people think we are useless, but it’s not very important or even helpful, because we face a lot of really good football teams between now and the end of May.”
Manchester United won a treble in 1998-99 but exited the League Cup to eventual winners Tottenham in the quarter-finals.
City finished the 2018-19 season with three trophies, too, but similarly saw a quadruple bid ended by Spurs, this time in the last eight of the Champions League – which Liverpool won.
“I’m not sure how you get to that story,” Klopp said. “OK, the only team that could win the quadruple is us, because we won the first competition – that’s easy.
“But even City, with all the quality they have, in the last few years couldn’t win the quadruple. That says pretty much everything.”
