Jurgen Klopp has hinted at a summer rebuild at Liverpool after dismissing accusations he is too loyal to his players. The Reds slipped to their sixth league defeat of the campaign on Saturday at Brighton as the hosts won 3-0 in a game Klopp later labelled as one of his worst ever in his management. The fallout from that defeat saw Klopp questioned in some sections for remaining too trusting of some of the players who have been in his squad for much of the German’s seven years at the helm and while the manager understands that particular school of thought, it is one he disagrees with. Klopp also suggested that significant alterations to his Liverpool squad could be forthcoming in the summer transfer window,
Jurgen Klopp said: “Yes, of course I’ve heard that but I am not too loyal. I am loyal, I think everyone should be loyal, but I am not too loyal. The situation is a little bit different. I know the problem is too complex. You have a good player who did a lot of good stuff in the past and then maybe, in your mind, you think: ‘that’s it now for him.’ So if you can then go out and bring in another player to replace him that makes sense from both sides [to say]: ‘Come on, it was a great time, see you later.’ If you cannot bring anybody in then you cannot take anyone out, that’s the situation. Again, I am not sure I have said it, the only problem of this intelligent question is what you all make of the answer. I am not too loyal so at Dortmund it was clear when I left I said: ‘Something has to change here.’ It was a different situation but if you want it’s similar. Either I go, the manager position changes or a lot of other things change. As far as I know, from what I hear, if nobody tells me, I will not go. So that means maybe there’s a point where we have to change other stuff. And we will see that. But again, it’s something for the future, like the future in the summer, but not now. So we cannot even think about it right now. I have some space and time to think about it but we have to play better football now. We cannot play and say: ‘These are problems but next season we don’t have them anymore’. That is really long away. I will see [the media] another 40 or 50 times before then and If we have to speak about this kind of football [every week] you wouldn’t come here anymore! Now people deserve better and we will [do better] but I cannot promise we will fly tomorrow night [against Wolves]. I want to promise we will really fight and everyone will see it because we fought at Brighton as well, we were just not close enough. I understand it 100%. I was not angry [after Brighton] I was angry with me, really, because I thought it could work and it didn’t. Then there are two big parts who are responsible for that and I only know 100% me. Of course, the boys, I don’t take them out of responsibility or the pressure and all these things. I just think I am responsible and that doesn’t mean they are not responsible for specific things. I really think you should always behave properly and not blame someone just to avoid the blame yourself. Really, I mean it. Think about me what you want – good or bad – it’s not that I want it, I just don’t care.”
Klopp, whose Reds side travel to Wolves in a third-round FA Cup replay on Tuesday,
Jurgen Klopp added: “The only thing I want is to fix this situation, that’s all. And with all the things, some of them, it was clear we’d have problems and it would be the important period of change really but with all the injuries, it’s much more than you could have expected. That is a fact as well but nobody is interested in it. Other teams are flying and that is fine, we were in that position a couple of years ago or last year but that is fine. The only thing we really have to offer is hard work. We have a big community in Brighton of Liverpool supporters and their support was super. It was a game where the crowd could have turned and they didn’t. That is the basis and we have to work with that. We will work with that and we respect that a lot and I mean it. Everyone feels responsible. There is nobody sitting there thinking ‘I was okay, but he wasn’t.’ It wasn’t there, I don’t see it, I don’t hear it, it’s not there. If it was here then the player would have a real problem. That is the moment the problems really start. Until then we stick together and we fight. If we lose, we lose but in a way that we can accept and not ‘how could that happen?’ I said Brighton were exceptional but in moments, it was too easy for them. And that is why I said I would like to go through [in the FA Cup] to make it a bit more difficult and see again.”
