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About the only thing missing from Jurgen Klopp’s managerial career is a victory at Old Trafford.
Even with no points at stake, the most important thing is that he breaks that duck with Liverpool’s season crumbling amid major injuries and four league games without a goal.
Having sent the boys out to play in the FA Cup last season, Klopp will turn to star man Mo Salah to start against the old foe. The Egyptian, whose contract he entered in the last 18 months, has a particular point to prove in a stadium where he has never scored.
Klopp’s reaction to the shocking loss at home to Burnley on Thursday has been to divert attention from his players and hold himself accountable.
German is an unusually motivated person, even for a high-profile manager, and he has a special and intense bond with the places where he works. At 53, he has managed just three teams in 20 years; Mainz, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool.
Contrast that with José Mourinho, who started his coaching career just 12 months earlier and is at his ninth club.
‘I don’t feel pressure from outside. I have dealt with the pressure that I have put on myself all my life. I’m used to that and I know myself well enough, ”says a thoughtful Klopp on how to deal with a rare fall.
“In the short term, I’m pretty easy to get excited about, but it’s hard to make me really happy in the long term with something. Is not easy.
‘When you’ve had our success, there are two directions later. You continue on exactly the same level, which is difficult with the challenges around you. Or it becomes a little less. Right now it seems like it’s a lot less and that’s what we have to change, of course. ”
Liverpool, of course, are entitled to a problem given last season’s Premier League title and two consecutive Champions League finals.
They have had to deal with this period with first-choice central defenders Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez who suffered long-term injuries and yet remain the Premier League’s top scorers, just six points off the top and unbeaten in home for almost four. years before last week’s upset.
But Klopp is too much of a perfectionist and worries too much to deal with excuses.
Behind the scenes, he may be a tough foreman, but in front of the crowd, he’s sensitive to his players. You will know that Trent Alexander-Arnold is having the first knockdown of his career, while Roberto Firmino’s five-goal tally in 27 appearances is not good enough for a Liverpool forward regardless of other attributes.
This is a time for Klopp to circle the wagons and in that sense Old Trafford is the perfect place to start.
“The tests we face are constantly in public and on television,” he added while defending his players. That means that everyone watches every little step in any direction. Obviously that’s great when you have a hot streak. When it is not a good race, there is not the same enjoyment.
“Sometimes you need a really low point to turn things right and that’s for sure what we’ll try, what we’re going to do now.”
It was significant that their two most experienced players, captain Jordan Henderson and James Milner, were not on the field against Burnley. Henderson was injured, while Milner was retained for this United clash, which in turn allowed others a break before Thursday’s equally important game at the Spurs.
Klopp can be trusted without asking his battle-hardened partner to resolve any locker room concerns.
“I can imagine what a lot of people think of us right now, but the players don’t change overnight,” Klopp said.
“They are still brilliant people and brilliant characters, all of them. They have done what has happened in recent years and they do not change their personality overnight. This is a challenge that we did not want to have.
‘Was it absolutely impossible that it could happen? No, especially in the situation we find ourselves in. They’re still a really good group, led by some [Henderson and Milner] they are always strong. But I don’t have to ‘use’ them because they work without a remote control. They have always been incredibly important. ‘
The FA Cup has not been a priority for Klopp since arriving in England in 2015. Liverpool have only made it past the fourth round once in that time, last year when U23 manager Neil Critchley took over. the replay against Shrewsbury. while Klopp and his first-team players were on a midterm sabbatical.
This time around, Klopp will be in command, putting more pressure on himself than any fan, expert or keyboard warrior could handle. It is well documented that his tenure at Dortmund lasted seven years and this is his sixth at Anfield. However, there is not the slightest sign that he is a happy Democrat.
“We’re not thinking that just because we try we should get everything,” he says. “At the moment we have not used the right tools and that is what we have to improve. We are really ready for the fight, 100 percent. ‘
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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