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The Reds boss was not amused by the challenge he left his Dutch star sidelined, and wants his team to prove their skeptics wrong without him.
Jurgen Klopp admits that Virgil van Dijk’s injury has hit Liverpool hard, but says he has no doubts about his players’ ability to deal with that setback.
The Reds coach was enraged by the aftermath of Saturday’s Merseyside derby with Everton, and in particular by the injury suffered by Van Dijk, who will be out for months following the challenge from Jordan Pickford that left the Dutchman with an injury to the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
Liverpool also saw Thiago Alcantara injured in a challenge with Richarlison, who saw the Everton forward with a red card. Thiago has not traveled to Amsterdam for his team’s Champions League clash with Ajax on Wednesday night.
At a press conference before that match, Klopp, like midfielder Gini Wijnaldum, was in no mood to downplay his feelings about the entire episode.
He told reporters: “A couple of days ago something happened that surely shouldn’t have happened at a soccer game. It is not the first time and it will probably not be the last time, but yes, I see it similar to my players. Both challenges were difficult to accept, let me put it that way.
“What we can all do is try to change this kind of thing. It is very difficult for us. Virg is our boy and it has nothing to do with Virgil’s quality. Yes, he is a world class player and we will miss him, but we will miss Oxlade as well.
“Injuries happen in soccer, and very often in challenges, but very often both players try to play the ball, and that was not the case with these two challenges. That makes it different and makes it so difficult to take.
“The last four years, we have been leaders at the Fair Play table. You don’t get anything for it, in fact most of the time people make a joke about it and say ‘Yeah, but you’re not at the real table’. We were pretty high on both boards, which means you can play football without these kinds of challenges. “
Klopp also criticized Goodison match officials referee Michael Oliver and VAR David Coote, who between them took no action against Pickford for his defiance of Van Dijk.
He said: “First, the referee doesn’t see it. Michael Oliver is an excellent referee in general, but why he didn’t see him, I don’t understand because he had the best view.
“So the VAR forgets the rules. As a human being, it’s not that I want to punish players, but if you do something wrong you have to deal with the consequences. Right now, only one person deals with the consequences. Two, sorry. Virgil van Dijk and Thiago Alcantara. That is hard.
“I wouldn’t have talked about that, but you asked me. Your [the media] Follow all these stories. I’m here to talk about a Champions League game, but you ask these questions and now everyone will judge us and say that we did not handle it the right way, but we did not do anything wrong in the game, and we are still the ones who suffer .
“That doesn’t feel right and it’s not easy to handle. We all accept that injuries can happen, but it should be a normal challenge. “
Klopp was also enraged when it was suggested that his team would now pay the price for the lack of coverage in the center half, with Joel Matip missing the game with Ajax due to a muscle problem, leaving Joe Gomez as the only recognized senior center-back. in the team.
Klopp said: “Yes, we go into the season with three center halves plus Fabinho as a front and young children. This is usually a good number.
“It is difficult to have four world-class center halves. On the one hand it’s quite expensive, on the other hand, one of them doesn’t play for a long, long time because it’s not a position where you rotate a lot.
“If someone wants to tell us now that we made a mistake in the transfer window, I think Jamie Carragher already mentioned it, then there are a few reasons why they don’t do this job! You cannot always have the solutions before you have the problem.
“It sure isn’t perfect. Joel Matip is not here either, which is not perfect, but that is our situation and we have to face it. We will see how we react to it.
“We are still a bit sensitive to the situation. The first question people ask themselves is ‘what will you do in the transfer market?’
“Yesterday we found out that our vice-captain and the best center half in the world does not play for us for a long time. We will see how long and then we will work on solutions for specific moments.
Klopp added: “I will not start reading the news about us because now we are not in the best of times, that would be a little crazy, but I know enough about the world. Many people speak before thinking. We try to think before we do it. Yes, we have a situation. We are here without Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip, but we will still try. What can we do now?
“People can say what they want. It is a free world. Three weeks ago they said we would flee, three weeks later we are not even in dispute over anything else. That is football, that is the world. We have to stay calm.
“Why should I think that the boys can’t deal with the situation? Obviously, you all think that we will fight, which means that now we have to prove them wrong. That’s what we are trying now, and we hope the results in the next few weeks will calm you all down, but I can’t promise that! “
