Klopp: It is nice to see Jose smile
JURGEN KLOPP has dismissed Jose Mourinho's claim that Liverpool must win the Premier League following their huge summer spend — and says he is glad to see the Manchester United manager smiling at last.
Mourinho insisted Klopp had to end Liverpool's three-decade wait for the title after spending €175million this summer. But Klopp, whose Liverpool side take on United in Michigan tonight, dismissed the claim as a futile attempt to apply pressure ahead of the new season.
"It doesn't bother me," said Klopp. "I heard he was smiling when he said it and he found it funny, so I'm really happy that Jose's smiling — it doesn't happen a lot.
"Would I speak about Jose if you didn't ask me? Of course not. Probably Jose wouldn't speak about me if nobody asked him.
"But I couldn't be less interested. It's completely normal. Jose tries everything; on one side to put pressure on people and on the other to improve his own situation.
"If he goes on about spending money — and I'm not the best at counting money in terms of what we've spent in the last few years — but I would say since we are both in England, probably he has spent a little bit more, at least net. That's how it is. It's not important.
"We tried to improve our situation and hopefully we could do that. That's it, nothing else. If our fans are now more optimistic after the last season, plus the transfers that we made, then it's perfect."
Both Klapp and the fans will be hoping to banish the Champions League final defeat. But Klapp has watched it several times and last night branded Real Madrid skipper Sergio Ramos "ruthless" and a "wrestler".
Ramos was involved in two controversial incidents in Liverpool's 3-1 defeat, with Mohamed Salah damaging his shoulder after a tussle and goalkeeper Loris Karius being taken out with another physical challenge.
Klopp, who had remained silent on Ramos until now, is convinced he targeted both players and accused the Spaniard of being a serial offender who has got away with brutal acts and sly antics throughout his career.
“If you watch it back and you’re not with Real Madrid, then you think it’s ruthless and brutal,” said Klopp. “You don’t think, ‘Wow, good challenge’. It was ruthless. I don’t think Mo would have always got injured in that situation, and this time it was unlucky, but it’s an experience that we cannot have.
“I’m not sure if it’s an experience we’ll have again: to go there and put an elbow to the goalkeeper, put their goalscorer down like a wrestler in midfield and then you win the game. That was the story of the game.
“Ramos said a lot of things that I didn’t like. As a person I didn’t like the reactions of him. He was like, ‘Whatever, what do they want? It’s normal’. No, it’s not normal.”
Klopp also claimed the incidents were part of a pattern of repeated behaviour for Ramos, below, and he had “seen a lot of situations” involving the defender.
“In the final the year before, against Juventus, he was responsible for the red card for Juan Cuadrado. He touched him and Ramos makes a big act of it. Nobody talks about that afterwards.
“The ref should have had the courage to decide that game. It doesn’t feel right, but we can’t change it. Obviously in this situation we didn’t get it and people will say I’m weak or a bad loser or whiner. I’m not. I accept it. It’s not like I wake up in the morning and think, ‘Ramos!’ I’m fine with it.”
After the defeat, Liverpool produced a medical report claiming Karius suffered from concussion and that was a factor in his costly mistakes. Klopp knew it would be seen as a desperate attempt to deflect from defeat, but insisted there was nothing dubious about the report.
“I knew what people would think when we did it and made it public,” Klopp said. “The doctor said it was likely Loris was influenced. Can he say for sure? Of course he can’t, but it’s likely, so that’s the word. We didn’t use it for one second as an excuse, but how can we not put it out as an explanation?”