Jurgen Klopp played with a straight bat today when the media tried to tempt him to speculate on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s future.
Liverpool finished Klopp’s first season in eighth position – regularly messing up at home to small sides and putting in a series of shambolic defensive performances in the Premier League.
We were better in the cups, reaching the League Cup Final and the Europa League Final – but sadly failed to convert both runs into trophies versus Manchester City and Sevilla respectively.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is enduring a horrible time at Manchester United right now – who of course play us on Sunday – but Klopp didn’t want to talk about his adversary and his struggles.
“After my 29 games, there was not 100 per cent agreement I was the perfect manager for Liverpool,” Klopp told a press conference today, cited in the Star.
“I have no clue about his position. It’s not important what you are writing, really.
“It’s more important what the board are telling him. I don’t have an opinion.”
Klopp intimates that some thought he wasn’t the right man for the job, but we can’t remember many of them.
And it wasn’t FSG, who awarded the German a lengthy new contract immediately after his first season in charge.
As fans, we were told to believe – and that’s what we quickly began to once we realised Klopp’s managerial ability matches his charisma and charm.
We’re not sure Solskjaer has either, in all honesty – but that isn’t our problem.
It’s Klopp and Liverpool’s job to prove that much in two days’ time.