KLOPP ACCEPTS BLAME Swan song gone wrong
LIVERPOOL NOT SINGING OFF SAME HYMN SHEET HARRIS WEST HAM v LIVERPOOL
JURGEN KLOPP was serenaded with ‘You lost the league at Goodison Park’ from the Everton fans on Wednesday.
But after he admitted he hated watching the Merseyside Derby unfold, he felt like singing a German chant at his own players during the game.
Klopp takes the blame for the 2-0 loss to Sean Dyche’s (inset) Everton which has left his side’s Premier League title hopes on the brink.
He reckons he ‘failed’ to inspire enough fight from his side to win the game.
It is what led to him thinking back to his Bundesliga days when fans would sing “Wir wollen euch kampfen sehen” at their team if they were not up to it in a game.
It literally translates to “We want to see you fight”.
“It’s really strange but I hated our game,” said the
Liverpool boss, who has seen his side drop eight points in a fortnight after defeat also by
Crystal Palace and a draw at Manchester United.
“We were not even close to what we want to be, I never understood it like that where I just sit there and (think) ‘well he does not want it, or he doesn’t want it’ because I know they want it.
“So it is my job to make sure that they can.
“And again the game was just horrible to watch.
“In Germany, when the crowd is not happy with the team and they think they are not fighting enough they sing a song “Wir wollen euch kampfen sehen”.
“I was close to singing that!
DAVID Moyes has come out fighting for his job by telling West Ham ‘you’ve never had it so good’.
Moyes, who turned 61 on Thursday, will be out of contract at the club at the end of the season.
He turned down the chance to sign a new deal in December but his side have been on the slide since the turn of the year.
They have won just four of their last 21 matches in all competitions and saw their hopes of a Europa League semi-final ended by
Bayer Leverkusen.
Sunday’s 5-2 horror show at Crystal
Palace, during which the
Hammers were 4-0
“Never has one of my teams heard that ever. Never.
“I never heard them say my team didn’t fight because my team (always) went for it. And now ... Wow ... how can that happen?
“And again, easy question, who could be responsible for it?
“I don’t put myself into the ground.
“That is how I understand the job. And that is what I try to do all the time.
“Sometimes it works out and this time for whatever reason it didn’t but I will try it again.”
Liverpool head into today’s lunchtime kick-off with West Ham knowing they must beat the Hammers to stand any chance of winning the title.
But even then they need Arsenal and Manchester City to slip up twice in their final games for the Reds to be crowned English champions for a 20th time as they trail the Gunners by three points with inferior goal difference.
City are two ahead with a game in hand.
Klopp insists that is down to him as he down after half an hour, has proved a tipping point, with owner David Sullivan now actively sounding out potential replacements.
Trophy
Sullivan held brief talks with Sporting Lisbon boss Ruben Amorim this week and has also made contact with former Wolves chief Julen Lopetegui.
But Moyes, who guided West Ham to a first trophy in 43 years when they won the Europa Conference League last season, has launched an impassioned defence of his record in charge. “I understand that we want to
Try
his side.
He said: “I am not in the mood to give up, to wave the white flag, these kind of things.
“I just think we have to look first after ourselves, just make sure we play better football.
“I said after the game, why should a team who plays like us against Everton, why should we be champions?
“I want us to use the situation. I want us to not feel the pressure, for whatever reason it is.
“I see it as my job to create an atmosphere where they can be the best version of themselves.
“That’s obviously what
I have failed to.
“I don’t know how, I have had 40 or 50 hours’ time to think about it.
“I don’t know where it happened but I didn’t see anything of what we wanted to be at the Everton game, to be honest.
“So now we had another few hours and now we try to be much more ourselves again.” do better than eighth, I understand that totally. But if you want to look back on the history, they have only finished in the top eight three times in 20 years; two under me,” he said. “The biggest thing to remember at West Ham was that stability was needed. A desperation for stability, to steer the ship through a period and keep them in the right place.
“I am pretty good at that and building clubs over the years when I have had long chances to do it. It builds clubs. The years I had with Everton in Europe gives an idea of that.”
On speculation about his potential successor, Moyes said: “I have to be honest, I haven’t looked. I’m only getting told by people like you, or maybe people have ‘failed’ phoned me up. But I haven’t gone out looking. As far as I’m concerned we had an agreement we would speak at the end of the season.
Criticism
“I’m sounding like a bigheaded git here, but everyone I meet says ‘unbelievable. thanks for giving me the best years, it’s been brilliant’.
“One fan gave me a bit of criticism after the Crystal Palace game. No problem, I deserved all the criticism in the world.
“There’s been three or four games I hated, but there’s been a bundle of good moments like the win against Tottenham, beating Chelsea, going to Brighton and winning and beating Manchester United at home. But all that is quite easily forgotten.”