Don’t listen to pundits, I’ll be here for years
Klopp puts up stout defence
ADEFIANT Jurgen Klopp is confident he will remain Liverpool manager for years. The German has been heavily criticised after winning just twice since August, a run encapsulated by defensive calamities in last week’s heavy 4-1 defeat by Tottenham.
Klopp will stick with Simon Mignolet in goal today against Huddersfield in a significant show of faith and revealed friends have inundated him with support about his own future this week.
‘I got so many messages saying, “Don’t listen to the pundits”,’ Klopp said. ‘People think maybe I’m not the right one any more and stuff like this. Inside nobody thinks it. Not the owners and not me. OK, we can try again like two years ago and get a new manager but the problems are always the same.
‘I know I am 100 per cent responsible for all this. People think that one day you lost a half a brain or whatever. I don’t think I am the problem.’
When analysing burgeoning talents Rhian Brewster and Ben Woodburn, Klopp added: ‘I will be here, 100 per cent — I’m con- vinced I’ll be here when they come through.’
Talk of defensive frailties prey on his mind, however. Liverpool have conceded 16 goals in nine games and are in the midst of their worst defensive start to a season since 1964.
Fifteen of those have come away from Anfield, where he welcomes best friend David Wagner today. And Klopp has launched a staunch defence of Dejan Lovren following his kamikaze 31 minutes against Spurs at Wembley.
‘He’s a Liverpool player and that’s how I treat him, as a member of the family,’ Klopp, who is without the injured Philippe Coutinho, said.
‘I’ve much more positive things to think about with him than negative. We cannot talk about the same things as other people do, that this one or that one is not good enough. They are good enough.
‘As a team we have to work really hard on the detail, which we did this week. It is not playing about home or away.
‘We all have Tottenham in our minds — the first two goals I am thinking, “What? It’s impossible”. But if we ignore that game and City then we’ll say we’ve defended well. The City result looks s*** but we were on their level. One situation at Newcastle: one goal with one mistake.
‘Watch City, watch Man United. They make mistakes but don’t concede in these moments. We concede in all of those moments when we make big mistakes. Immediately, a goal.
‘We’ve got a lot of games to come and if we can do what we’re able to then it can be a wonderful season, which nobody thinks about in this moment.’