Jurgen Klopp invited Liverpool’s detractors to blame him for the club’s current “crisis.
Last season, the Reds won a cup double and came within two games of an unprecedented quadruple; however, they have not lived up to similar standards this year.
Liverpool are currently tenth in the Premier League, 22 points behind leaders Arsenal and 12 points outside the top four, and have been eliminated from both domestic cup competitions. In addition, they face an unfavorable Champions League draw against Real Madrid in a rematch of last season’s final.
Klopp acknowledged to Sky Sports prior to Monday’s Merseyside derby against Everton that he should bear the brunt of the criticism.
When asked if Liverpool was in a crisis, Klopp responded, “Of course, we don’t try to disguise that. You must exit the situation, and that is what we are doing.
“You can criticise everything that right, but don’t go for the wrong people, that makes no sense. I am responsible for all of this, if you want to criticise, criticise me. That is how it is, and I have no problem with that.
Klopp was then asked if Liverpool’s players are still feeling physically and mentally spent from a gruelling 2021/22 season, to which he replied: “I don’t know 100% but we know it was influential but again from our point of view if you suffer from something, you can keep on suffering or you can fight out of it.”
Jurgen Klopp defends under-fire Jurgen Klopp, a midfielder for Liverpool, has disputed claims that captain Jordan Henderson is responsible for the team’s dismal results this season. This season, the Reds’ midfield has been heavily criticized, with many citing the advanced age of the majority of regular starters. Henderson, at 32 years old, is the second-oldest player in the group, behind only James Milner, who is 37 years old and is a substitute.
Henderson has started ten of Liverpool’s 17 Premier League games this season and has been on the bench for big games against Chelsea, Tottenham, and Manchester City over the past few months.
However, when speaking to the media prior to the Merseyside derby, Klopp was adamant that he has no problem with Henderson.
“I don’t understand why we’re talking about one player,” Klopp said. “Hendo, everybody knows how much respect I have. Hendo is not our problem, never was and never will be.
“When he is ready, good shape, he played 98% of the games we had. He hasn’t [started] for two or three games, but came on. He played all these games because he’s a very, very, very important player for us. That’s the only reason.
“When he’s not playing, you miss that. It’s as easy as that. But there’s nothing. Yes, he’s very important.
” If we missed something from Hendo, but all the rest [of the players] were there, we wouldn’t miss it that much. This is a team story. If you want a manager story, nothing else. No individual players, no individual members of staff.”
Instead, Klopp maintained that Henderson’s decline in performance is due to the fact that the midfielder has appeared in a staggering 91 games for club and country since the beginning of last season.
Klopp said, “People don’t want to hear it because it sounds like an excuse.” “There must be a rationale for our actions this season.” We don’t become awful guys overnight or lose our football IQ or anything like that. “On top of confidence, losing momentum, some physical things as well. They are clear. Other players from other clubs have similar problems, they cannot play the season they played last year. For us, it’s not too important. The last season was long ago, we try to manage things like workload as much as we can. We couldn’t do it, particularly up front when everyone who was healthy had to play.
“When you have changes up front, you want a settled midfield where it’s clear what is happening. It’s not always workload management, it’s not that easy.”
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