Jürgen Klopp has a storm problem. This was clearly evident in the 7-0 Premier League win of his Liverpool FC at Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon. The problem is that his strikers are in good to excellent shape, but it is difficult for him to line them all up at the same time. As a coach, he is responsible for sparing his regular players from time to time. But when he replaced Sadio Mané against Crystal Palace in the 57th minute of the game for Mohamed Salah, the scorer’s anger at the decision to make it 2-0 was clearly visible – and Salah later only cheered cautiously after his goals to 6-0 and 7: 0.
When asked about it by the BBC, Klopp said with a broad grin that he was “happy” to be able to replace Mané so early – “he obviously wasn’t. But that’s completely okay and normal. ”Salah had“ also not organized a party ”when he told him that he would not play from the beginning. “I have to make these decisions. The boys accept it. Sometimes they like her, but not always. That’s how it is.”
This luxury problem will not spoil Klopp’s Christmas spirit. Especially since Liverpool cannot take the lead over the holidays; They play the next time on Sunday, then against newly promoted West Bromwich Albion. Last Wednesday, Liverpool had defeated Tottenham Hotspur, who had previously been in the table, 2-1 and thus took the lead in the championship for the first time since the end of October, which they now impressively put on the table. The fact that Tottenham lost again to Leicester City on Sunday should not have depressed the mood.
Two games, two victories meanwhile for Liverpool, the championship lead regained and the 2: 7 disgrace against Aston Villa on matchday four in the goal difference more than compensated: You can understand the accumulation of the word “happy” in Klopp’s recent interviews. In between, he was also named Coach of the Year by the International Football Association (Fifa) – for the second time in a row – although many Bayern Munich coach Hans-Dieter Flick had seen ahead this year.
Maybe that’s why Klopp didn’t make the award a big deal. “If you had asked me: ‘Are you the best coach in the world?’, I would have said ‘no’”, he preferred to draw attention to his assistants: “If you had asked me: ‘Do you have the best coaches in the world around you around? ‘, I would have said’ yes’. ”The bottom line is that there are more important things in the world than the FIFA Prize, but it is still“ nice ”.
Last season, at the end of which Liverpool became English champions for the first time in 30 years, Liverpool were eight points ahead of their pursuers after 14 matchdays. This season is closer, as Klopp pointed out after defeating Crystal Palace: “At this point it doesn’t make sense to be excited about anything.”
To explain his sobriety, he had a German soccer field wisdom ready for the English audience: “In Germany we say it’s better to win 1-0 seven times than 7-0 once.” Nonetheless, he had to admit that such a victory “also nice “feel. He therefore feels no satisfaction, it is too early for that. After the great game of his team he was “happy, absolutely” for the moment.
And his storm problem is not made easier by the fact that there were seven different assists in the seven goals against Crystal Palace. Organizationally, that’s very complicated. But it’s probably the nicest problem that Klopp would like to have.
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