Villa Park highs and lows still run deep for Pool boss Klopp

JURGEN Klopp has mixed feelings about Villa Park as he returns for the final time as Liverpool manager.

The ground witnessed a crucial moment in their title-winning season when Andy Robertson and Sadio Mane scored in the final three minutes to snatch a 2-1 win in November 2018 which extended their unbeaten start to that campaign and felt hugely significant.

However, the following season, they returned as champions and were incredibly thumped 7-2.

Asked about his memories of Villa Park, Klopp said: “You talk about that game (the 2-1 win). We had another night at Aston Villa...

“True, it was a really special game when we won 2-1. At halftime, we had a little situation in the dressing room, a little argument between two players, but you will not get the names from me (Robertson has previously admitted it was him and Mane), and then we could calm it down and turned the game around, which was really special.

“That’s when you go for absolutely everything, when everything is on the edge, and these kinds of things can happen as long as you settle as quick as possible.

“That was a very important one, a great feeling after the game, absolutely.

“This group of players was really special. It meant so much, and things can happen when you work together for a long time especially, that’s normal.”

Liverpool head to fourthplaced Villa tonight with nothing to play for except pride in Klopp’s penultimate game as manager.

Their title bid petered out over a fortnight in April, but that does not mean Klopp does not have standards to keep.

“Like pretty much everything in life, you never should take things like this for granted,” he added.

“We have the chance to go above 80 points again, and for that, we need points, we need to win one of the two games at least. Aston Villa is the next chance.”

Villa suffered their own major disappointment on Thursday when they missed the chance to reach the Europa Conference League Final following defeat to Olympiacos.

That makes Klopp wary ahead of their encounter.

“It’s the last home game of the season of Aston Villa, they want to have a good last home game because they play an incredible season,” he said.

“This year, Conference League; next year, Champions League — Unai (Emery) is doing an incredible job there and is one of the best we have in the business. Wherever he was, he had success.

“We all know how important it is for a club to qualify for the Champions League, how difficult it is to do that.”

Meanwhile, John Mcginn hopes boss Emery can become Aston Villa’s equivalent of Klopp.

“I think everyone knows what we think of the manager. We are very lucky to have him and his staff,” he said.

“They work endlessly to make the improvements to make us better. Even on Thursday morning, he was treating the Olympiacos game the same way he did the first pre-season game.

“It is just the way he is. He is a workaholic who is desperate for success.

“We would love him to be here for many years. I have three years left here at the moment. He has three years left himself, so hopefully, he can be here for many years to come.

“But he wants success and does not want to stop short at Semi-finals or fourth place. He wants more than that.”

Mcginn also says he is sad to see Klopp go.

“They are certainly slightly different, but both of them are up there with the best managers in the world,” he said.

“The League has been very lucky to have Klopp. He will be missed in the League, definitely.”