50 I’ll miss you when Jur’ gone
ANDERSON
TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD admits it will be “weird” without Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool next season.
Klopp is the only Liverpool boss Alexander-Arnold has known since he handed him his debut as an 18-year-old in October 2016.
Alexander-Arnold has blossomed under Klopp to become the Reds vice-captain and an England international.
He knows instinctively what the German coach wants on the pitch and says it will be “strange” adapting to a new manager’s style.
“I’d probably say I’m sat on the fence with regards to my feelings on a new manager coming in,” he said to Gary Neville in the latest edition of SkyBet’s The Overlap.
“It’ll be a completely different situation and it’s going to be weird to then turn up to pre-season, having to adopt a new playing style.
“Whereas now, without anything getting said to me, I know all the manager wants me to do.
“I turn up to pre-season, I know to jump there, I’m to press there, but my next pre-season will have a completely different message.
“It’s going to be strange but I like the idea of a new challenge for the team, players, the club.”
Alexander-Arnold says it was a total shock when Klopp called a team meeting before training in January to tell them he was leaving at the end of the season.
As stunned as Alexander-Arnold was, he understands Klopp’s desire to go because he did not have the energy for another season.
“It was a weird morning,” he said. “We arrived at the training ground around 10am and then we have a meeting at 12pm after we’ve trained.
“But this time we arrived as normal and the manager wanted to have a meeting straightaway — it’s the first time I’ve ever had a meeting at 10am.
“Everyone was in the changing rooms and we’re all looking around thinking, ‘What’s happening?’
“He just said, ‘I want to let you know that it’s breaking now’, and he said he was done, not like completely done, but I could tell this was it.
“He knew another season would be too much, but he has enough in the tank to get us to the end of the season.
Incredible
“That’s certainly something he always taught us — you take it season by season, no matter what goes on, no matter what situation you’re in.
“Jurgen has been nothing but incredible. I owe everything to him as a player.
“The only thing you can ask for as a young player is an opportunity and that you’ve got a manager that’s willing to give you a chance. I was fortunate enough to have that.
“He put his arm round me and guided me through the ups and downs.”