Tag: Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool agonizingly blew 2 golden chances to bury Arsenal’s Premier League title chances

This was SO close to being a mind-boggling collapse.

The Premier League title race is coming down to the wire between Arsenal and Manchester City. Arsenal seemingly did everything to open the door for City in a 2-2 draw against Liverpool Sunday.

If not for a chance miss by Mohamed Salah and a very clutch save by Aaron Ramsdale, we’re probably having an entirely different conversation about City eventually chasing Arsenal down.

After the Gunners took an apparent commanding 2-0 lead, Liverpool and Jürgen Klopp’s battled back. While the Reds would eventually knot the match up anyway, Salah had a golden chance on an early second-half penalty to tighten the pressure.

He missed.

Salah’s reputation as one of the best players in the world precedes him. So much so that Klopp was actually shocked the midfielder didn’t pot the penalty.

No matter. Liverpool found a way to keep matters interesting with Arsenal regardless. And in the closing seconds, the Reds and Ibrahima Konate almost buried the Gunners and put a cherry on top of an embarrassing collapse.

Except Ramsdale made a miraculous save to keep it level:

PHEW. Imagine being that close on the doorstep and not scoring. Imagine being the goalie, holding what might be an eventual Premier League title, in your gloves.

After holding a 2-0 lead, a draw is nonetheless awful news for Arsenal. They hold just a six-point lead on City in the Premier League Standings with eight games to play (City has nine remaining matches). But a loss would’ve been disastrous. A loss — with Salah conversely making his penalty and Ramsdale actually not being a hero — would’ve opened the door to almost certain chaos.

Jurgen Klopp isn’t into Todd Boehly’s Premier League all-star game idea

Harlem Globetrotters vs. Premier League All-Stars, who says no?

Todd Boehly thinks the Premier League needs an all-star game, but he’s not going to have an easy time convincing Jurgen Klopp that it’s a good idea.

Klopp laughed off the proposal, which the new Chelsea owner brought up at the SALT Conference in New York. According to Boehly, the all-star game would make a huge amount of money that could be distributed down the English league pyramid.

For Klopp, there was just one big problem.

“Oh, great,” said Klopp with some well-honed sarcastic enthusiasm. “When he finds a date for that, you can call me.”

Klopp’s concern was pretty straightforward: the English calendar is packed to the gills, an issue that has become more notable after the Premier League postponed a whole slate of fixtures after Queen Elizabeth’s passing. The November World Cup had already created an unusual logjam of games in this Premier League season, and Klopp appeared to have no patience for an idea that would add any more.

“He forgets that in the big sports in America, these players have four-month breaks. They’re quite happy they can’t do a little bit of sport in these breaks. It’s completely different in football,” said Klopp following Liverpool’s 2-1 Champions League win over Ajax.

Boehly’s proposal involved a north vs. south structure, which might work in some places. In a country where city derbies or regional rivalries run hot? Klopp thinks fans wouldn’t be too keen.

“I’m not sure people want to see that. (Manchester) United players, Liverpool players, Everton players all together in one team?,” asked an incredulous Klopp. “And all the London guys together, Arsenal, Tottenham…great. Did he really say it? Interesting.”

Klopp did have one last offering to improve the initial idea.

“What can I say? Does he want to bring the Harlem Globetrotters as well, and let them play against a football team?,” said Klopp as a dismissal of the topic, but also possibly the best idea anyone’s ever had.

[lawrence-related id=6259,7226]

Klopp narrowly avoids becoming a sports talk radio caller in defense of Manchester United

Klopp revealed some vulnerability, and demolished Gabby Agbonlahor in the process

Jurgen Klopp flirted with disaster this week, but thankfully for the Liverpool boss, he decided not to take the fateful first steps towards ignominy.

Klopp told reporters on Friday that he nearly called into a UK sports talk radio show to defend Manchester United after hearing the scorching hot takes fly on talkSPORT, particularly from former Aston Villa attacker Gabby Agbonlahor.

“It was obviously not a nice week for United after the Brentford game. We forget in these moments how good Brentford is, to be honest,” said Klopp ahead of Monday’s match against Man Utd, before detailing a near-miss in terms of his dignity.

“I watched the first half (at Anfield), and I drove home and coincidentally listened to talkSPORT. And Gabby (Agbonlahor), he lost against us 6-0 my first year. I couldn’t remember him as a mentality monster on the pitch, but what he said about United on that show, I was close to calling in,” said Klopp, simultaneously exposing a moment of personal vulnerability and completely obliterating Agbonlahor.

“I was close to call in and tell him, ‘You forgot completely that you have been a player,’ it was unbelievable!” added Klopp. “If ex-players go already like this, then you can imagine how everything else is going.”

Klopp brought the topic back to the match ahead, in which he expects the Red Devils to be far improved on the mentality front after starting the season with two rough losses. “You have to ask yourself, just ask yourself, how would you want to react in a situation like this?,” asked Klopp of what he thinks Man Utd is going through internally. “And you would, of course, fight back. That’s completely normal, that’s what we expect (on Monday).”

Hear Klopp’s remarks on Man Utd

[lawrence-related id=982,6235,6019]

Liverpool, Man City treated the Community Shield like a real game

The Community Shield seemed to matter this time

The FA Community Shield functions as a curtain raiser for English soccer, but with Liverpool and Manchester City likely set to battle for every trophy once again, the Premier League giants treated what is ostensibly a friendly like a final.

Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola fielded extremely strong lineups, and kept them out there for the first hour before making subs like…£85m addition Darwin Núñez. Fans in the crowd roared, both teams lobbied furiously for VAR decisions that went their way, smoke bombs were tossed onto the pitch. If the teams were supposed to just be getting an easy run-out in as part of their preseason preparations, no one told them.

Trent Alexander-Arnold’s beautifully composed 20-yard finish gave the Reds the lead, but new addition Julián Álvarez got Man City level on a goal that was initially called off only for VAR, after a spell, to overturn that choice.

VAR was involved again on the winner, as Núñez’s header struck Rúben Dias. This wait was even longer, but in the end Mohamed Salah was granted a spot kick after Dias was judged to have handled the ball, and the Egyptian fired home the winner.

Even with Liverpool facing another friendly Sunday—they’ll host Strasbourg at Anfield—they were playing at their familiar high tempo, and Núñez improvised a header in stoppage time to get Liverpool their first trophy of the year.

That said, there was still a preseason sort of moment mixed in. Even deeper into stoppage time, Erling Haaland somehow managed to fire into the stands when standing in front of an open net, capping off a frustrating day at the office for Man City’s biggest summer addition.

Still, the fact was that it felt like it mattered, rather than simply being one more game in the mess of preseason fixtures. Teams generally brush off a Community Shield loss, especially when their opponent isn’t supposed to contend for much in the coming season (see: Man City losing to Leicester City last season).

But when you’re Liverpool, coming off of a season that kept ending with second-place finishes, it makes sense to throw down the gauntlet to Man City and the rest of the league. And if you’re City, of course you want to maintain your place as England’s best team.

Sometimes this kind of ceremonial season kick-off kind of game can just sort of drift by. They give a trophy out, and no one spends time thinking about it again for the rest of the year.

This time, between these two teams? It feels like the first chapter of a saga.

See the goals that won Liverpool the Community Shield

[lawrence-related id=5375,5116]

Jürgen Klopp warns fans to ‘put your hands away’ because of the coronavirus

We’ve got to put Klopp on a coronavirus response team.

Jürgen Klopp absolutely hates being asked about the coronavirus, but man he seems to have everything under control when it comes to this pandemic.

As Liverpool was walking on to the pitch for their match against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday – which was held at Anfield with fans in attendance as usual – Klopp noticed that fans had their hands hanging over the rails trying to get high fives from players and coaches as they came out.

But, obviously, we’re in the midst of a pandemic. So, naturally, all high-fives are canceled. These fans didn’t care, though.

Klopp scolded them for trying to touch the players. He’s very clearly had enough of this whole thing.

“Put your hands away you [expletive] idiots,” Klopp appeared to say to the fans. And where did those hands go? Away. Immediately.

[lawrence-related id=900954,899312]

[jwplayer XfDC8lIT-q2aasYxh]

Jürgen Klopp goes off on reporter after being asked about coronavirus again

Klopp has had enough.

Note to reporters: Don’t ask Jürgen Klopp about the coronavirus anymore.

The last time the Liverpool manager was asked about his players potentially being exposed to the coronavirus, he went off on a rant about all the reasons he shouldn’t be asked about it. He made it clear that he was not an expert on the virus and that he thought it really didn’t matter what he thought.

So, of course, when he was asked about it again on Tuesday ahead of a Champions League game against Atletico Madrid, he had another rant ready to go.

A reporter asked Klopp if he was afraid that his players could potentially be exposed to the virus by playing, and Klopp sounded off.

“Playing football, it’s just a game. We are not the society — we are part of the society and we should all be worried in the same time. And that’s exactly the thing I don’t like, that you sit here and ask me this question but fly from Madrid to here…We play football. That’s our part, what we have to do. Your job is to transport information and I hope you do it better than you ask questions, to be honest. Because that’s the moment where I really get angry. When you give me the feeling I have a problem that you don’t have. We all have the same problem.”

That’s a fair point from Klopp. He’s just a guy doing his job, at the end of the day. It’s not his call to determine whether Liverpool should play games or not — he just manages the team. Just like it’s the reporter’s job to follow the team and ask questions including that one.

It’s a tough situation for everyone to be in. No idea how it should be handled, honestly.

I do know one thing, though — it’ll probably be a while before anyone asks Klopp if he’s worried about Coronavirus again.

[jwplayer yff8tOLg-q2aasYxh]

Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp delivered the perfect answer to a question about coronavirus

Well said.

Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool’s manager who has gone viral before for his interview antics, made a really good point in a rant he delivered in response to a question about his thoughts on the coronavirus outbreak.

Specifically, he was asked if he was worried about it. And he responded exactly how you’d hope he would.

“What I don’t like in life,” he began, “is that a very serious thing … a football manager’s opinion is important, I don’t understand that … it’s not important what famous people say. We have to speak about things in the right manner, not people with no knowledge like me.”

That ending is the best: “I wear a baseball cap and have a bad shave.”

But yes, his point there is spot on. He doesn’t need to stoke the flames or say something that might not be factually correct about a subject that the experts on coronavirus can talk about with authority.

[vertical-gallery id=899111]

[jwplayer eTBhZ75i-q2aasYxh]