TheNewsGuru

Tag: Jurgen Klopp

  • We can be crowned champions-Liverpool coach, Jurgen Klopp

    We can be crowned champions-Liverpool coach, Jurgen Klopp

    German tactician and Liverpool boss, Jurgen Klopp has said that it is possible that his side could be crowned the Premier League winners on Sunday evening.

    Liverpool beat Southampton 2-1 on Tuesday night to reduce the gap between them and City to just one point heading to the final day.

    Liverpool came from a goal down at St Mary’s after Nathan Redmon put the home side ahead, to win 2-1 with goals from Takumi Minamino and Joel Matip.

    The last game of the season sees the Reds hosting Wolves at Anfield whilst Aston Villa travels to the Etihad in what book makers have tagged clash of the titans.

    Klopp insisted that City remain on course to win the Premier League title once again, but hopes there would be a surprise.

    After the game against Southampton, Klopp was asked to rate his side’s title chances, and the German told BBC Sport: “Of course it is unlikely because City play at home against Aston Villa, who play only on Thursday.

    “But it is football. I think the time when City became champion [in 2019] it was because of 11 millimetres.

    “If someone wants us to be champion, then we have to win first and Aston Villa need to get a point at City.

    “It is possible, not likely but possible. That is enough.”

  • Sunday Oliseh blasts Klopp over anti-Tottenham comments

    Sunday Oliseh blasts Klopp over anti-Tottenham comments

    Former Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh, has blasted Liverpool coach, Jurgen Klopp over his comments on Tottenham after the 1-1 draw in an encounter on Saturday.

    Klopp was aggravated that Liverpool didn’t win as this posed a setback in their quadruple challenge.

    Speaking after the game, Klopp hit out at Tottenham for their style of play, insisting: “I don’t like this kind of football.

    “I’m sorry; I am the wrong person to ask about [Tottenham’s defending] because I don’t like this kind of football. But that is my personal problem. I think they’re world-class and I think they should do more for the game.”

    However, his comments have received heavy criticism from Oliseh, who said the German failed to find the key to win against Spurs with the hugely gifted players in his possession.

    “Disappointing with all due respect to Klopp,” Oliseh wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

    “There are different ways of playing football; one should always respect the opponent’s style. Up to him to find the key to win with the hugely gifted players in his possession. Football will be boring if we all played the same way.”

  • Liverpool should forget EPL title – Klopp

    Liverpool should forget EPL title – Klopp

    Manager Jurgen Klopp admitted on Tuesday that Liverpool should forget about catching Manchester City if they drop their standards after a damaging 1-0 defeat at Leicester City.

    Ademola Lookman’s winner stunned the second-placed Reds to keep them six points behind Manchester City in the title race.

    Kasper Schmeichel saved Mohamed Salah’s first-half penalty kick and Sadio Mane missed a golden chance after the break as the wasteful visitors suffered just their second defeat of the season.

    It ended a 10-match unbeaten run and they could be 12 points adrift of Manchester City by the time they play third-placed Chelsea on Sunday.

    Klopp said: “To top that, Chelsea and us play against each other. It was not our plan to give Manchester City the chance to run away. If we play like tonight, we cannot think about catching up with Manchester City.

    “If we play our football and we can win games, we can see how many points we can get and what that means.

    “I don’t have a proper explanation for tonight – to find it is my main concern, not Manchester City.

    “We were not ourselves. We started OK, I didn’t like the intensity even in the beginning but it was the start. Then we lost the rhythm and never found it again.

    “We forced it a little bit too early, instead of passing the extra pass. We tried to change that at half-time but for some reason it didn’t click.

    “When they scored the goal it was clear we were under pressure, we were pushing them but didn’t use the chances. They deserved the three points.”

    Leicester City responded to their 6-3 defeat at Manchester City with a resilient and determined display to collect just their third league clean sheet of the season.

    This was in spite of a makeshift line-up with midfielders Daniel Amartey and Wilfred Ndidi both playing out of position in central defence.

    Schmeichel kept them level in the first half when he saved Salah’s 16th-minute penalty kick after the forward had been tripped by Ndidi.

    Salah nodded the rebound onto the bar having missed his first league penalty kick in four years.

    The goalkeeper also turned Salah’s fierce close-range effort over while Jordan Henderson and Diogo Jota shot off target.

    Liverpool continued to push after the break and Mane should have opened the scoring but he blazed over having been put through by Jota.

    It proved costly as substitute Lookman snatched the points on 59 minutes.

    Just 178 seconds after replacing Hamza Choudhury, he jinked past Joel Matip to drill inside Alisson Becker’s near post.

    Liverpool failed to find a good enough response and Jota headed wide and Virgil Van Dijk was denied by Schmeichel late on.

    Victory allowed the Foxes to climb to ninth following the win against manager Brendan Rodgers’ former club.

    Rodgers said: “In the context of the game, on the back of Sunday, the players put in a heroic performance. If you think about the recovery time, the players were amazing how they coped with it.

    “We had to be resilient, tough and defend for your life at times but also show good moments of football.

    “If you look at the weekend, even though the scoreline was 6-3, two were penalty kicks and two were set-pieces. We let ourselves down with the set-pieces so we needed to break the cycle.

    “I just thought ‘let’s just go back to the basics again’ —- a bit of an old-school structure, defenders go and defend, guys on the posts. The two centre-halves were amazing.”

  • Nigerian journalist tackles, demands apology from Liverpool boss, Klopp for calling AFCON ‘little tournament’

    Nigerian journalist tackles, demands apology from Liverpool boss, Klopp for calling AFCON ‘little tournament’

    Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, has come under fire from a Nigerian journalist, Ojora Babatunde, over the German’s remark about the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations, which he described as a “little tournament.”

    Klopp had earlier in the week been asked about the busy international fixtures that ran into March of next year.

    His response was “No international break until March, I’ve heard that so often, but in January there’s a little tournament in Africa, I just want to say.”

    After Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over F.C Porto in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday, an irate Babatunde speaking via video link to Klopp, demanded an apology over his “little tournament”comments.

    A surprised Klopp moved quickly to defend the statement saying “I didn’t mean it like that. I didn’t mean it like that, I don’t know why you understand it like that, to be honest..”

    “So I was not even close to it being the idea in my mind that I want to talk about the African Cup of Nations as a ‘little tournament’ or the continent of Africa as a little continent, not at all,” Klopp stated in defence.

    “What I meant was, if you watch the whole press conference then you might have understood it the right way if you wanted to because I said there are no international breaks until March now.”

    Babatunde, still not finished with the 54-year-old was of the opinion that the former Dortmund manager would never demean Europe’s international tournament.

    “But you wouldn’t say that in Europe, you wouldn’t say a ‘little tournament’ in Europe…”

    “‘I am not a native speaker but if you want to understand me wrong, you can do that all the time,” Klopp said

    The Africa Cup of Nations will kick-off in Cameroon on January 9, with the final to be held on February 6, and Klopp is set to lose Salah, Mane, and Naby Keita to international duty.

  • Where Klopp’s team has weak spot – Liverpool legend

    Where Klopp’s team has weak spot – Liverpool legend

    Liverpool legend John Aldridge says the right-side of Jurgen Klopp’s midfield is a weak spot.

    Aldridge believes it is being targeted by the opposition.

    “Klopp will be spending this international break pondering how to solve the one big issue in his team,” Aldridge told the Sunday World.

    “The opposition has been targeting the right side of Liverpool’s defence and they have been getting too much joy from that tactic.

    “AC Milan scored a couple of goals attacking that side of the Liverpool back four and the same happened with Brentford and then Manchester City last weekend.

    “James Milner filled in for Trent against Manchester City in the last round of matches and did a decent job, but I wonder whether Klopp needs to look at tweaking his tactics to offer a little more protection on that side.

    “This is not a criticism of Trent as he is a fantastic footballer, but maybe Klopp needs to look at the balance in his team to get the defensive side a little more stable.”

  • Jurgen Klopp spotted in Barcelona this week

    Jurgen Klopp spotted in Barcelona this week

    Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was spotted in Barcelona this week.

    Sport says Klopp was in Barcelona on Monday.

    The German coach took advantage of the international break to travel here for personal reasons and he dined with a small group of people.

    Coincidentally Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s yacht was also in the harbour but it seems it was a flying visit.

  • EPL: Jurgen Klopp hits out at protesting Man Utd fans

    EPL: Jurgen Klopp hits out at protesting Man Utd fans

    Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has hit out at Manchester United’s protestors.

    Klopp has spoken for the first time on Sunday’s events at today’s presser.

    He said, “We were sitting the whole time. An hour before the team meeting they told me there were problems at Old Trafford. We did the meeting and after that we got told about the delays. We just had to sit around in the lobby. It was not cool.

    “I heard some police were injured and these things should not happen. It was not completely peaceful and then it was not right anymore.

    “Then we got told the game was postponed. We saw some pictures to see what was going on. Was I surprised to see it happen? No. I am a believer in democracy. I am happy for people to say their opinion, but I know this doesn’t happen often that no-one is hurt.”

    The match will now be staged next Thursday.

    Klopp added: “We were informed about the [re-arrangement] process, but we were not consulted. It’s not good for us, I would have preferred the game last week. It’s not cool but there’s nothing to complain about.”

  • Jurgen Klopp reveals best player he has ever managed

    Jurgen Klopp reveals best player he has ever managed

    Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Bayern Munich ace Robert Lewandowski is the best player he has ever managed during his spell at Borussia Dortmund.

    Over that time he has taken charge of countless world-class players, but one in particular stands out for the German.

    When asked during an interview with Bild who was the best player he had worked with as a manager, Klopp did not hesitate in his answer.

    “Robert Lewandowski. It actually won’t be fair to say that about any other player except Lewy,” he explained.

    “What he has made out of his potential, how he pushed himself to become the player he is today, that’s extraordinary.”

    According to the coach, it is not just the Poland international’s innate ability in front of goal that makes him such a fine player, but also his work ethic and determination.

    “Lewy took every step he needed to take to be that goal machine. Every one,” he added.

    “He has immersed himself in the game, he just knows in every situation what he has to do, where he has to go. Lewy is an absolute machine.”

  • Nobody needs to worry about me – Klopp

    Nobody needs to worry about me – Klopp

    Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp insists he does not need a ‘break’ after rumours circulated that he was going to leave Anfield.

    The Reds lost a third league game in a row against Leicester City on Saturday.

    Klopp conceded after the game that Liverpool were now out of the Premier League title race.

    The German was also unable to attend his mother’s funeral last week due to coronavirus travel restrictions.

    “Did I get the sack or did I leave by myself? I do not need a break,” said Klopp.

    “Nobody has to worry about me. I might not look like this because the weather is not cool, the beard gets more and more grey and I don’t sleep a lot but I’m full of energy. The situation is a challenge.

    “I don’t want to have the situation but I see it as an interesting challenge. We will sort it.

    “It could be tricky but we are sorting it by playing football, by sticking even more together, fighting with all you have and learning more than you can in each season you have played before. That is the plan we have.

    “It’s a massive challenge, I’m ready and boys are ready and we give our absolutely everything to sort it.

    “Thanks for all the support. I’m very grateful but they can think about other things because nobody has to worry about me.”

  • Klopp tells Fans: I don’t make transfer decisions here

    Klopp tells Fans: I don’t make transfer decisions here

    Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp says he’s powerless over the club’s transfer decision-making.

    After defeat to Burnley, Klopp hinted at his frustration that they have not been able to bring in reinforcements with the German’s squad significantly impacted by a number of injuries.

    Klopp insisted the decision to bring in new recruits before the end of the month was out of his hands.

    “These decisions are not my decisions,” he said.

    “If somebody thinks we should do something, I cannot decide if we do something in the transfer market or not. That must be clear.”