Jurgen Klopp Liverpool
Jurgen Klopp insists he is critical of his Liverpool players behind the scenes – but remains convinced he has the right blend available to turn their season around.
Jurgen Klopp said: “I am like I am, I am not always nice. I would like to be, but I am not. We are critical of everything and it is like this, so you cannot change that like I am always not and now I am, that is not how it works. From a football point of view we try to adapt. Obviously we don’t adapt quick enough otherwise we would have won more games and had more points. That is the criticism we face. But again, we can do our best and if someone thinks there is another who can do it better, then of course they have to make a decision. That is clear. I don’t think that no-one can do it better, but I don’t think any of the deciders have that opinion – at least no-one has told me. But it is not that you can change things on everything. You can change football things, yes, but when we win games, we are not constantly partying and when we lose we are punching each other in the face. So it is not that easy, it is just somewhere in between. You need to find this kind of belief, optimism and positivity again to go and play because it’s just a game. That is what we kind of always did, most of the times, at least. I have seen that myself. We have had big parts of the games, our fair share.”
Klopp said that a post-match discussion with his Chelsea counterpart Tuchel led to the Blues boss to question just why results had taken such a nosedive given recent performances at Anfield.
Jurgen Klopp added: “We lost [the game] but I spoke to Thomas Tuchel after the game and he analysed us [before the match] obviously, and he couldn’t understand how we lost this game and this game, so it is not to explain it really. If you lose because you perform badly, you can change. If you perform well you can still lose anyway, but not because the opponent was much better or something, or they were lucky, or in one moment we made a mistake…we have had all kinds of defeats this season. Not a lot of [the defeats] were because of performing completely under our ability and we lost a game clear. That was maybe Aston Villa for sure (in the 7-2 loss), but even that game was strange. But that just makes the situation so complex. It’s not about ‘we change this and it works again’. We have to adapt to the opponent, we still have to play the game and in football games, always, strange things can happen. And this season, a lot of strange things can happen. Very rarely has it been a positive for us and that is it.”
