WWorld class striker Robert Lewandowski (32) needed a clarifying discussion with the then coach Jürgen Klopp after a difficult early months at Borussia Dortmund. After a lost Champions League away game in Marseille, he went to see the coach, recalled the Bayern Munich attacker in an interview with “Goal” and “Spox”. “We spoke for almost two hours, I told him what was on my mind – and he explained to me what he expected from me.”
Lewandowski moved from Lech Posen to BVB in 2010 and stayed there for four years until he left for Munich. At first he had no regular place under Klopp, he only played 15 of 33 games in the Bundesliga from the start. The turning point came in September 2011 after BVB went 3-0 in the Champions League at Olympique Marseille. “At the time, I didn’t really know what to do with the coach.”
“I needed that”
After the interview with Klopp, “everything worked better”. “I needed this conversation,” Lewandowski recalled. In the subsequent game against FC Augsburg, the attacker scored three goals. “I was very young and lived abroad for the first time in my life. I have not yet spoken the language perfectly and accordingly I have not understood everything he said to me. But that didn’t matter, the situation had to be clarified. ”The goalscorer has been playing for FC Bayern since 2014, with whom he won the triple in August.
After the discussion, a successful duo in Dortmund: coach Jürgen Klopp and Robert Lewandowski, here in 2013
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Image: dpa
The English soccer champions FC Liverpool meanwhile have to do without the injured defender Joe Gomez in the long term. The 23-year-old had to undergo an operation on his left knee on Thursday morning, the club said. The reason was a tendon injury that Gomez suffered on Wednesday while training with the English national team. It is likely that the player will be out for a large part of the 2020/21 season, it said. But there is still no specific schedule for the return of the national player.
The failure of Gomez is another setback for Liverpool. Coach Klopp already has to do without defense chief Virgil van Dijk, who is out for an indefinite period after knee surgery. Midfielder Fabinho, who had represented van Dijk on the Liverpool defense, is currently sidelined due to an injury.
On top of that, it is unclear when Trent Alexander-Arnold will be back at the Reds. The right-back had to leave the pitch in the 1-1 draw in Manchester on Sunday and did not travel to the national team. Klopp had recently shown upset about the high load and the tight schedule in the Premier League.
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