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Jurgen Klopp insists he is much calmer today, but the air around him will still have turned blue on Friday night.
In a new Liverpool documentary due out this month, Klopp reveals that his outbursts are not as infamous as they were during his formative days in his German homeland.
But given Friday’s events, Klopp may have been forgiven for raging like that young coach in Mainz two decades ago.
First, the Liverpool manager received the news that Mohamed Salah had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Egyptian FA posted on its official Facebook page that the Reds’ top 10-goal scorer was ready to enter a period of self-isolation after contracting COVID-19.
What had already been another week of punishment on the injury front after Joe Gomez was forced to undergo knee surgery, the news about Salah was yet another kick to the stomach.
Just a week after voicing concerns about how some national teams handle their coronavirus protocols, Klopp was faced with the news that Salah would now not be playing at home to Leicester.
“For us, it feels safer when we are all together, although we also had some cases,” Klopp said just over a week ago.
“Yeah, the problem with that situation is that we don’t have power. Not really.
“We try to find out what the protocols are like with all the different federations, but it is up to the federation to respond or not, so FIFA is not really involved in that.
“That would be helpful if you don’t get a reply from an FA, for example, then we don’t send a player.
“That would be great because then you would get a 100% response. And then you would know that all the protocols are fine.”
Losing their most powerful attacker just a few days, those comments will have frustrated the Liverpool manager, to no end.
But if Klopp thought Salah’s situation was as bad as his day would be, he was sorely mistaken.
The latest round of game changes that fell around 5 p.m. will only have further darkened the Reds coach’s mood.
Liverpool, as part of the shakeup, will now visit Brighton, one of the most distant days in the Premier League for the champions, at 12.30pm on Saturday 28 November.
Get all the latest updates on Joe Gomez’s injury after he underwent successful surgery on Thursday, plus the latest news and analysis for what’s next for the Reds.
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It’s the time slot that both Klopp and his Manchester United counterpart Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer have been furious lately over weeknight engagements on the European front.
After traveling to Everton for the game early Saturday, just days after a Champions League game in Istanbul this month, Solsjkaer said: “The authorities prepared us to fail.
“How can I prepare after a Champions League game on Wednesday night in Turkey and prepare for the kick-off on Saturday at 12:30?
“It’s a real disaster.”
Just over 24 hours later, after watching Trent Alexander-Arnold hobble out of a 1-1 draw with Manchester City, Klopp once again made public his very detailed concerns about the schedule.
“Let me put it this way, we played last time after the international break at 12.30pm against Everton,” he said at the Etihad.
“Some of my players, Wednesday night, were in Peru [for Brazil], so these things shouldn’t happen. I understand the need for 100 percent television.
“It is completely normal that we play on a Saturday, it is the game at 12:30 which is a killer.
“People can like it and think it’s a proper competition that gives other teams a chance, the only problem is that we hurt the players.”
With Atalanta at home for the Reds on Wednesday, November 25, the announcement that the game at the Amex will now take place at lunchtime Saturday due to television demands will not have been the best news.
Particularly when it came in so hot after Salah’s setback, which also came shortly after realizing that Gomez would face an uphill battle to play this season.
Even Gareth Southgate, who oversaw events at Wembley on Thursday night as England played a sterile closed-door friendly with Ireland, agrees that something has to give.
Klopp, as Southgate himself hinted, did not understand much of Gomez’s latest injury.
Who should play central against Leicester? Choose your duo in our quick survey HERE.
When asked before Thursday’s win whether the Liverpool manager accepted the seemingly bizarre nature of the defender’s knee problem in a phone conversation between the pair, Southgate remained coy.
“Well unfortunately the injury was so unique in the way it happened that we know it was just a consequence of the number of games actually,” he said.
“And wherever it has been, there is a possibility that that has happened.”
However, if an already overworked Gomez hadn’t been on international duty for a pointless friendly, he would have had the week off like the rest of his teammates.
That, crucially, would have given him much-needed time to rest his tired muscles that sadly gave way instead.
Klopp, 53, may be calmer these days, but that hasn’t helped much this week.
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