Jurgen Klopp has rejected rumours he would quit Liverpool and shrugged off concerns about his wellbeing after the death of his mother by maintaining that no one should worry about him and insisting that his heartbreak does not affect his ability to do his job.
The Liverpool manager’s mother, Elisabeth, died in his native Germany last month and Covid restrictions meant he was unable to attend her funeral.
Liverpool have lost their last three league games, their worst run under Klopp, as he has admitted their defence of their title has ended, and there were rumours after Saturday's 3-1 defeat to Leicester that he was going to resign.
Klopp denied that and thanked supporters who erected banners saying YNWA (You’ll Never Walk Alone) outside Anfield.
“The banner is nice but not necessary,” Klopp said. “I don’t feel I need special support. Thanks, I am very grateful, but they can turn to other things.
“Did I get the sack or did I leave? Neither. I don’t need a break. The last thing I want to do is talk about private things. But everybody knows. Privately, it was a tougher time but it was not three weeks ago, it was a longer time already and we deal with it as a family, 100 percent.
“I’m 53, I can split things, I can switch off one thing and the other. I don’t carry things around, if I’m private then I’m private. If I’m in football then I’m here.
“Of course, we are influenced by what happens but nobody has to worry or whatever. I might not look like this, because the weather is not cool and I’m white and the beard gets more grey and I don’t sleep a lot, but I’m full of energy.”
Liverpool face RB Leipzig in Budapest on Tuesday in the last 16 of the Champions League with Klopp adamant that he is more determined than ever to halt their side.
“Nobody wrote a book about how you come in a situation like this and how you solve it but we will solve it,” he said. “We will solve it by learning more than in each season we played before. The mood is absolutely okay and we are still ready for a proper fight.”
Klopp believes Liverpool have been playing better than recent scorelines suggested, adding: "Nobody is ignoring the results, fact-wise, but if you see the games against Leicester and [Manchester] City, they were not ones you would imagine we concede seven and score two.
"We made individual mistakes, we speak about them but that is how it is as human beings, you make mistakes.”
Captain Jordan Henderson said the players take “full responsibility” for Liverpool’s plight, despite Klopp’s attempts to shield them from blame. He said: “I know the manager tries to protect us as much as possible but as players it is down to us to change the situation we are in. It is down to us to go out there and keep fighting.”
Henderson may have to be pressed into service as an emergency centre-back again as Liverpool face last season’s Champions League semi-finalists
“Strange things happen injury-wise,” Klopp added. “If someone tells me we have a player with a minor problem, I can say it is the centre-half. A football team is like building a house, if the foundation is not right the wind will go right through it.”
Klopp faces the 33-year-old wunderkind of German management, Julian Nagelsmann. “He is an outstanding manager and in the future when we are old, he will be even better,” he said. “When we concentrate on other things in our lives, he will be a major actor in football.”
