Liverpool will not park the bus against Hoffenheim, warns Simon Mignolet
The goalkeeper, who saved a penalty in Tuesday night's 2-1 win, believes his side will still play on the front foot in the second leg
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Simon Mignolet is certain Liverpool will play on the front foot in the return leg of their Champions League play-off tie with Hoffenheim rather than set out to protect their slender one-goal advantage.
Jürgen Klopp’s side left Germany with a 2-1 win courtesy of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s first-half free-kick and a Havard Nordtveit own goal, but substitute Mark Uth struck late to keep the Bundesliga outfit’s hopes of an upset alive.
Mignolet himself saved an early Andrej Kramaric penalty that would have put the hosts ahead and had to come to his team-mates’ rescue on several other occasions after they were caught too open, but he does not expect Klopp’s game plan to change at Anfield.
“We can only play one way and that is forward,” the goalkeeper said. “To score two goals away from home, if we score one at Anfield it will be very difficult for them. We knew that we can always score. We have so much style up front.
Following Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Watford, in which two of their opponents’ goals were conceded from set-pieces, Liverpool’s defending was widely criticised by supporters and in the media.
Mignolet believes he saw an improvement on that front against Hoffenheim and the 29-year-old thinks Klopp’s side will have found the right balance by the time of next Wednesday’s second leg.
“We took a lot of steps defensively today and we were solid,” he said after Liverpool’s victory. “On set pieces we defended well too and that is what we have to learn. We know what we have to improve after the Watford game and we have a good dressing room that will deal with that.
“We have the qualities and our natural game will be attacking, and we know we have to fill that in with a really defensive spirit. We know that is where we have to improve. We are not blind.
“Everybody knows it in the dressing room, but there is no point throwing everything away. A natural footballing side that goes forward, you cannot change that but we know we have to mix that in with a good defensive, aggressive spirit to make sure they don’t score the goals.
Mignolet added: “We know we have so much talent in the squad that we have to use it. I just try and improve and help the team out where I can.”
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