Players don’t rule the roost
KLOPP RUBBISHES POWER OF STARS
JURGEN KLOPP believes that player power is a myth.
The Liverpool boss reckons players being able to influence club owners to sack a manager is a thing of the past.
The Reds face Leicester tonight in the Foxes’ first game since Ranieri was controversially axed last week.
Leicester players Kasper Schmeichel and Jamie Vardy have denied that the players put pressure on the owners to sack their boss just nine months after he guided them to the Premier League title.
But Klopp said: “Players are not more powerful. We were much more powerful in the past.
“There is never a direct line to the owner or whatever. As long as the players talk together there is no problem. If they start talking about you? For this, you need an ear on the other side.
“The players need to be powerful but not in sacking managers.
“They never did it. It’s not like the Leicester players did it or something. If someone asked, they gave an answer.”
Liverpool’s players held a team meeting before their win over Tottenham two weeks ago without Klopp present.
Mutiny
Kop skipper Jordan Henderson led the way as players thrashed out their issues after a nightmare run that ended their title hopes and left them out of both domestic cup competitions.
But Klopp insisted there was no chance of mutiny. He said: “First of all I knew they were meeting, of course. It’s not that I read it in the newspaper.
“As a player I had more meetings without the manager in these sorts of times than with the manager. It was long ago. It is never a problem.
“I told the boys to do it, even when the public are aware of it being without the manager. I don’t care. I don’t have a second of doubt about my relationship with the team.
“I don’t have to be part of different things. That is good.
“It is important the boys come together and sort things for themselves because I can only give advice on the sidelines, say hopefully the right things and make the right sessions. They have to take it in.
“They have to use it and deliver on the pitch and be a real group – and a real group can meet, talk about it and work on solutions.”
Dejan Lovren is set to miss tonight’s clash with a knee injury while striker Daniel Sturridge is struggling with a virus.