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Jurgen Klopp sees no reason why Mohamed Salah would want to leave Liverpool as the Reds coach cleared up the controversy over the captaincy at Midtjylland.
Salah gave an interview to the Spanish publication AS last week on a number of topics, such as his interest in one day joining Barcelona or Real Madrid.
“We never know what will happen in the future,” was Salah’s response to that question, who also expressed disappointment at not having received the captain’s armband for the recent Champions League draw with Midtjylland.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, instead, saw his dream come true by captaining his childhood club in Europe and Klopp has moved to clarify the situation, saying it was a mistake on his part to give the right back the honor.
Instead, the duty should have gone to Divock Origi, Klopp said, as he dismissed claims that Salah was campaigning to get away from Anfield.
“I don’t know, we all want it and we can look for something else if you want, but the only reason to leave Liverpool at the moment is really the weather,” Klopp said.
“What other reason could there be? This is one of the biggest clubs in the world.
“We pay a lot of money, maybe not the most in the world, but we pay well, and we have a great stadium, outstanding fans with a fan base around the world.”
“So our colors are red, which is the prettiest color anyway, so what’s the reason? But you can’t force people to stay, but that’s it.
“By the way, we never did, it’s about timing at the right times, things like this. We’ve made changes to bring in players and if someone wants to leave we can’t keep them.
“I just don’t understand why anyone would want to go. And when Mo answered the question, it was that these clubs might be interested, but he didn’t rule it out. Imagine.
“Okay, I’m different because you ask me a lot about that and these things about contracts and things like this.
“But ask any player in the world who is not playing for Barcelona or Real Madrid and then ask him ‘Can you imagine playing for them one day?’ and [imagine] he would say ‘No, not for me, Spanish. They are the greats of Spain. ‘
“Why should I say that? All he said is ‘we’ll see.’
“And about Liverpool, [a new contract] it’s in the hands of the club and things like that. It’s one hundred percent true.
“It’s about conversations and having conversations about a future and this kind of thing, so everything is really good.
“Obviously you don’t have much to talk about and that’s why we do a long story from an interview.
“That’s completely fine, but it doesn’t make him more important to me. Mo is a very important player to me, obviously. But this story is not.”
Klopp said the captaincy should have been handed over to Origi given that he had been with the club the longest on the team that took the field in Denmark earlier this month.
The Reds manager added: “I was a captain for a long time in my career, and what a great job it is because there aren’t a lot of benefits that you get, just a lot of work with all the things around you.
“I neither felt nor felt the importance of being a captain.
“Yes, we have a captain like Hendo and that is important, but being a captain during a game, I didn’t realize how important it can be for the players because in this world now everything is a great story.
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“I didn’t realize it was such an important story for Trent. The rule here is that there is a player committee and it is Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Virgil van Dijk and Gini Wijnaldum.
“There are almost four captains. You don’t need four, but if Hendo isn’t playing, then Milly, if both aren’t playing, then Virgil or Gini.
“If everyone can’t play, he’s usually the guy who’s been at the club the longest.
“That was, in my understanding and how I saw it, it was Trent. I don’t mean the youth career, the professional career.
“Someone told me later that it should have been Divock Origi and that it was my fault because I had no loans and things like that.
“So I didn’t make it that complicated, I just gave Trent the bracelet.
“And I talked to Mo about it after the game and when I realized it didn’t work out that well, I clarified it and he said it again in the interview, so it wasn’t a problem for me.
“He said he was disappointed and I didn’t do it on purpose, I just did what I did. If I made a mistake, then it was that Divock Origi was not the captain.”
The Reds manager said he was more than happy with what Salah said in the interview, stating that more was being done than necessary.
And as the champions prepare to host West Brom on Sunday with 16-goal Salah in top form, Klopp said he does not foresee a situation that will become a problem for the Egyptian superstar.
“Mo’s level of motivation is really high,” Klopp said. “He stays in incredible shape and works really hard during the sessions.
“He’s the first in, the last out, that sort of thing and there’s nothing you can blame him on for that.
“So he knows exactly what he needs for that and he knows he has a chance to break records if his teammates give him the ball in the right positions and things like that. There’s no question about that, so everything is fine. .
“These kinds of interviews I’ve heard of now, to be honest, you do a lot of them, which is fine, absolutely fine, but we don’t feel it on a daily basis.
“It is a challenge to manage players in general. They are all human beings and you are different and my players are not different. It is a challenge in a good way, but that is my job, actually.
“The thing about footballers is that they have to be very confident and then they can play their best football.
“So being very confident makes you a special person and it’s not always the easiest to deal with every day, but so far there are no problems and I can’t see any in the future.”
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