Xherdan Shaqiri has his sights set on winning the Champions League with Liverpool. The Swiss international met his new team-mates and trained for the first time as a Liverpool player on Wednesday, after completing a £13.5m move to the Reds from Stoke earlier this month.Shaqiri won the Champions League with Bayern Munich in 2013 and the 26-year-old is desperate to add another winners’ medal to his collection with his new club.
“I hope I can repeat that because I know how it feels to win the Champions League,” Shaqiri said.”It is really amazing and I think we can do it. We have good quality – especially with the new players that have been brought in – they have very good quality. I’m looking forward to the new season and I hope we can finally win titles. I think the important thing is to be successful, and to be successful you need to win some titles and trophies and I hope we can lift some trophies this year.”
Shaqiri has a fight on his hands to force his way into Jurgen Klopp’s free-scoring Liverpool side. Klopp’s regular front three of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino scored 91 goals between them in all competitions last season.
“It’s always difficult, you always have competition everywhere in the world,” Shaqiri admitted. “We are a big team, there are big players here and everyone is going to fight for his place, but in the end we have to be successful as a team. And you need every player to be successful in a long season.The coach knows my quality and he knows I can play lots of different positions in front so I think that is going to be positive for the team and we can be more variable in the games.”
Shaqiri will inevitably come under scrutiny after facing criticism – notably from former team-mate Charlie Adam – for his attitude and commitment last season, which ended with Stoke getting relegated.
“It’s totally wrong, I think,” Shaqiri said of questions raised about his professionalism during his time at Stoke.
“People who know me, they know who I am. Other people don’t know what they are saying. I don’t listen to them, I do my work. I’m really happy to do my work and I don’t need to listen to these people about what they say.”
Shaqiri, who was blocked by former employers Bayern Munich from joining Liverpool in 2014, revealed Klopp was instrumental in his decision to move to Anfield.
He added: “When I heard the club wanted me I wanted to come because I’ve known him [Klopp] a long time. I’ve admired him for a long time and I am really happy to be here. Jurgen Klopp is a great person and a great character with a winning mentality and that’s the most important thing.”
Liverpool are favourites to challenge Manchester City in the race for the Premier League title after a big summer of spending, according to Dennis Wise. Reds manager Jurgen Klopp has already signed Fabinho, Xherdan Shaqiri, Naby Keita and most recently Alisson Becker, who joined for a record fee for a goalkeeper.Wise believes Liverpool look like the strongest contenders to rival Pep Guardiola’s side for the title following their summer additions.
“I think this is the team [to challenge City]. I really do,” he said. “They showed glimpses of it last year. They finished fourth, but they also got to the final of the Champions League. It’s time for Klopp to step up to the plate,” Wise said. “He’s spent £178m on players he’s bought in. He’s filled gaps that needed to be filled. He’s got an awesome three up front. Mohamed Salah has got to do it again. With a little bit of help from Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino. They’ve added a bit of quality with Xherdan Shaqiri. But, they’ve bought in Alisson Becker. That was important.”