Jurgen Klopp offers update on future plans as he sets out 'very important' target

Jurgen Klopp has insisted he is refusing to put any focus on his future plans as he prepares to leave Liverpool.

Klopp announced in January that he would be calling time on his reign at Anfield at the end of the season after nine years in charge. The German had hoped his time as manager would end on a high.

But instead Liverpool have fallen short in the Premier League title race, the FA Cup and the Europa League. With just three games left in charge, speculation is growing about his future, with Borussia Dortmund linked with a move to name him their head of football.

But Klopp is refusing to acknowledge those links, instead insisting that taking a break from the sport remains his plan. With three games left, he is putting his full energy into going out on a high.

"I have said throughout that I am not 'in that moment' in terms of focusing on my own situation and this is very much unchanged. The time to reflect will come, but it is not now," he wrote in his programme notes ahead of the clash with Tottenham.

"At the same time, though, it is indisputable that our final two home games will be my last at Anfield as a manager so hopefully we can make the most of the time we have together. For me, this means playing good football, being at one with our people.

"And doing everything we can together to make Anfield the special place and Liverpool the unbelievably incredible club that it is. The good thing is, for this to happen all that we need to be is ourselves and all we have to do is give everything that we have."

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Klopp will leave his role as Liverpool boss at the end of the season
(Image: Visionhaus/Getty Images)

Liverpool have secured qualification for the Champions League for next season. The Reds sit 15 points ahead of fifth-placed Spurs, who they host at Anfield on Sunday, with Klopp keen to get his side back to winning ways.

"It is clear that getting over this particular line [Champions League qualification] is a very important objective. We enjoyed being in the Europa League this season and would have liked to have been in it for longer than we ultimately were," he added.

"But at the same time we all know the importance of Champions League football to this club. As well as being helpful for the future, it also underlines the progress that has been made in the present given where we were last season.

"We know, of course, that this is also an aim for our opponents and it says a lot about the work that Ange Postecoglou is doing at Tottenham that they are involved in this conversation in his first season in charge.

"I think anyone who has watched Spurs play this season will have admired the way that they play football and I am most definitely in this category. They are not only well set up as a team, they are also very exciting to watch, which is never a bad combination."

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