LIVERPOOL MANAGER JURGEN Klopp warned his players he has a darker side if they fail to live up to expectations.
Klopp’s time in charge of the club has started with consecutive draws – a 0-0 result at Tottenham and 1-1 stalemate against Rubin Kazan in the Europa League.
The German’s public image is one of an eccentric and entertaining coach, but Klopp said his players would find out otherwise if they under-performed.
“If a player is full of motivation, concentration, readiness and passion, I am not hard with them. I have open arms and maybe give a last kick,” he said ahead of Sunday’s clash against Southampton.
“But if a player doesn’t understand the professional part of his life, it is a little bit of a waste of time.
“I can help if they are very young of course, talk to them and give maybe one, two or three chances.
“But when they are older and have had five chances with other managers, then it is a waste of time.
“I love to be something like a friend of the player, but not their best friend.” K
lopp met Liverpool’s owners on Friday, a day after the draw in Europe, and the message was clear. The former Borussia Dortmund coach said he wanted minimal contact with the owners.
“They only want that I solve the problems,” Klopp said. “It is always the same. The less contact we have, the better I think.
“[It means] everything is OK. That is what I want, we don’t have to stay in contact all day, [saying] ‘What happened this day?’ and so on.
“I am here, I am the manager, the sport part of this club is my responsibility and that is what I try to do all day. But we have a real good relationship, everything is OK.”
Kick-off at Anfield is at 4pm.
Dead right. hopefully a win today now to give him and the players a little boost.
Looking forward to seeing what he does with the team over the next few transfer windows. It’s obvious he takes no sh!t from anyone, players or owners. Hoping he gets rid of the rot in the club asap.
He’ll need about €350 million if he gets rid of all the rot in that squad
The owners gave so much to Rodgers and his transfer committee, and they squandered the lot, apart from a handful of players who have either made a positive impact or look like they have a bit of potential. Can’t see why Klopp won’t be given the same financial support. If he’s allowed buy the players he wants, that will buy into his philosophy, I can see Liverpool improving vastly. First thing though is to sell those who either won’t or can’t play his kind of football.
Considering the players he lost Rodgers was given peanuts. He was only given 17 milion on top of what they got for Suarez after he left. You can’t compete for the league I’d your net spend is just 17 million.
@Ron, he still nearly spent £300 million over three years. Three years with not one trophy to show for it all. Rodgers came out and said that Spurs should be challenging for the title after spending £100 million. Most of that £100 million came from the sale of Bale. I’m a Liverpool fan like yourself, but that is embarrassing.
philosophy score more than the opposition.
ah come on ron stop that oul guff he spent a couple of hundred million.
Cutting the waste is more important than bringing in new players right now. Liverpool will go backwards before going forward.
I have to admit I like this bainisteoirs philosophy and the sort of staccato German-English soundbites are altogether more succinct than the usual waffle
First job is to buy a brand new back 4 and goalie
@Beano I don’t think Mignolet has been that bad lately. His distribution is poor but he’s made a few quality saves. Back four is the problem. A centre back should be his first purchase.
He will need time and can’t be judged until we see what moves are made in and out of the club in the transfer market. Problem is there are a lot of average players there now and to get the quality needed to attract better players champions league football is needed. So then he could be relying on the current squad to get into the top four or three as it might be. Some of Rodgers players like firminho, origi, lallana etc. etc needed to deliver something and really he needs to pray that sturridge gets fit again otherwise he is a luxury that the club can’t afford.
I actually think that Sturridge won’t be able to cope with Klopp’s demands. He’s made out of glass, every time he comes back from an injury, he immediately is ruled out again. I’m beginning to wonder if he’ll be able to keep up the tempo and the pressure. Hope he proves me wrong but if he can’t, I don’t think Klopp will stick with him.
It’s clear looking at that Liverpool squad how bad it is. Much work for Jurgen to do
thats Baloteli gone for good so