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Since Jurgen Klopp took over as Liverpool manager, it must have felt like he hasn’t had a minute to himself.

Thursday’s goalless draw in Augsburg was the 31st game he has taken charge of in just four months. The games have come thick and fast from the word go. It’s one of the things he says has surprised him about English football, its relentlessness.

For once, though, he and his players have the luxury of a weekend without a competitive game. They’d rather be in FA Cup action I’m sure, but this is a great chance to work on a few things on the training pitch ahead of a massive week for the club. I’m sure Klopp and his staff will be grateful for the chance.

It’s a very tough week ahead, with the second leg against Augsburg on Thursday quickly followed by the League Cup final at Wembley. So ideally you want to be working on your game-plan for Wembley, but you know you have an important game to prepare for in the meantime.

As I say, it’s a massive week – the biggest of the season.

The ultimate aim this season is to win a trophy. With us being in the League Cup final this is our best chance but we all know the importance of the Europa league because of the possibility of a Champions League place available, which looks unlikely for us to achieve via the league.

Augsburg showed us from the first leg how difficult this tie is going to be because we all hoped we would have been in a stronger position going into the second leg.

carry on from, the aim is to just get through.

And then of course, we all know how big the City game is. No reminder needed there.

I’m sure Jurgen and his coaching staff will have plenty of things to work on during the week, and it will be good for him to get some quality coaching time, rather than just the ‘rest and recover’ sessions they will have been doing for most of the past few months.

IN PICS: Augsburg 0-0 Liverpool

Why the Europa League is cheapened for me...

It’s a competition that gets a fair bit of criticism at times, the Europa League.

And while I think some of that can be unfair, I do think there is one thing that really cheapens it – the Champions League teams dropping into it after Christmas.

I know it’s gone on for years now, and we’re all kind of used to it. But for me it belittles the competition. Why should teams be rewarded for failing in one tournament by getting favourable draws in another?

There’s a massive prize at the end of the Europa League campaign now, of course, and Liverpool must have their eyes on it.

There are some top teams still left in the competition and we have seen just from the first leg already how tough it will be to go all the way and win it.

But its great to have some European nights to look forward to and hopefully enjoy between now and the end of the season and who knows what we may well go on and achieve.

Why I was so impressed with Villa win...

I fancied Liverpool to get a result at Villa last Sunday, but I was impressed by the ruthlessness they showed in doing so.

Everyone spoke afterwards about how poor Villa were, but Liverpool made them look bad. To win away from home in the Premier League is difficult, so to win 6-0 was excellent. Football is a ruthless sport, and you have to have that streak in you if you want to succeed.

It was encouraging to see them going for the kill once they got ahead in the game, and putting it to bed after half time. Six different scorers, and a clinical edge to the finishing. It was great to see.

You could see the difference made by having Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho together in the team. It hasn’t happened enough, of course, but when they’re on the pitch we will always have chances in games.

What do you make of Neil's column this week? Let us know in the comments section below, or @LivEchoLFC