Jurgen Klopp spoke about a variety of issues at Liverpool, including his ‘persona’, Manchester City’s riches, the importance of owners FSG and how the Reds need to over-perform consistently.

The manager was speaking in an interview with Oliver Holt, who mentioned Klopp’s jovial mood, to which Klopp insisted he’s not always smiling, but it’s an image he’s happy to have as he feels grateful to be where he currently is.

“I am not always in a good mood,” he says, “but it’s not long that I am in a bad mood. A bad mood is a waste of time. It’s not useful. You suffer. It’s like you have an open wound. You don’t like it but when it’s fixed, you don’t think about it any more. So keep on going. That’s my attitude.

“I hear people when they meet me in hotels… the guy who showed me to my room in Huddersfield a couple of days ago told me: ‘You are always smiling.’ And I said: ‘I’m not. You should have seen me after West Brom.’ It’s an image but I have no problem with that. It’s not that I’m constantly smiling but I like my life, that’s true.

“I didn’t always have the circumstances I have now and I was still rather happy. If I am not a happy person now, I would be pretty silly and I am not silly. I have a fantastic family. All are healthy, in a good place in life.

“I work for a fantastic club and I do a job I love, so how could I not be happy? [I was a] happy child, if you want. Not too smart but not silly enough not to come through.”

As conversation changed, Klopp was questioned on the idea of paying £60million for Riyad Mahrez, as Manchester City were prepared to do to help them deal with the six-week absence of Leroy Sane.

“[That’s] next level, eh,” says Klopp with a grin. “I never moaned about my circumstances once in my whole life,” he says.

“It is always like this. You can be a millionaire and your neighbour is a billionaire and you are not happy only because you live in the wrong neighbourhood. Maybe you want to move your house to where there is no billionaire and then you are the king of the road. Please, I cannot be like this (envious).

“I’m not only thankful for my life, I’m thankful for the circumstances we have. We have to use it. It’s just exactly like it should be. If we can really develop, then we can be more successful. There is not much of a gap any more. It’s not as if there are eight places between us and the top. One team has been outstanding this season.

“We have to accept City as our neighbour and say they play fantastic football and it’s nice to watch and that’s OK and it’s well deserved. We have the chance to do it similarly. That’s what we’re building towards.

“The only problem here is that the people are waiting so long, otherwise they could be happy with the situation. But we cannot change our history and we don’t want to, so we have to deal with it.”

The German manager was keen to insist that although FSG president Mike Gordon has told him the Americans can’t back him like Manchester City’s sheikhs, he has the full support of owners who are ‘fantastic’.

“If we talk only about the money City have, you cannot compete. We said it already: we have two clubs in world football which are owned by countries. We cannot compete with that. It would be easy for me to say that, in comparison, “we have only FSG (Fenway Sports Group)”. But I don’t think that because we have FSG and they are fantastic.

“We have Mike Gordon, the FSG president, and he is the most supportive person I have ever met. It’s crazy. He says: “Sorry, they can do that and we can’t.” I know that’s impossible. So I don’t think about how we can compete. We can beat Man City like we did last month. We need to play at our very best. We didn’t need too much luck that day. That’s football and I love it.

“In the long term, did Man City have a one per cent influence on the results which led to the 19-point gap between us? No. Only us. We could have won games. With a little more luck we would be closer and could have made more pressure but we didn’t. That’s OK. Only if you compare are you not happy.

“The only chance we have is to use the time we have. Nobody puts us under pressure from the side. The owners don’t say, “next year, you be champions or you can go.” It’s outsiders who say, “if he doesn’t bring silverware in, he’s under pressure.”

“If the people here want to work together for that one moment when we can succeed and that’s possible, then everything is fine.”

“My first team in Mainz, we had to over-perform constantly,” Klopp says. “And we did. Until we went down. Going to the top league was crazy. Getting promoted was crazy. Not possible, actually, with these guys. Nobody wanted them. They were all third, fourth-chance. We did it. Fantastic. Friends to the end of my life.

“Dortmund was similar. They were so young they had to over-perform constantly. And here, we have to over-perform, too. That’s no problem. That’s the point where we are as a team. That’s why we drop some points sometimes.

“Mo Salah, world class, but not every day. Sadio Mane, world class, but not every day. Roberto Firmino, world class, pretty much every day.

“In an ideal world, the game against Spurs will be comparable to our game against City at Anfield because the two games for us against City and Spurs are, from a football point of view, the most nice to watch.

“It’s got nearly everything. It’s like when the two knights pull down their face armour and ride at each other in a joust. Go for it. I really like that. It’s an open fight.”