Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp can’t really mean it when he says that he doesn’t really care about winning the Premier League title this season. We’re all keenly aware of what a fierce competitor the German is, so it’s impossible to fathom him honestly giving up on that aim.
What is really happening here is the supermanager superstar candidly expressing his frustration with the injury crisis that has struck his team so hard.
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Klopp opened up to the Daily Mail’s Jamie Redknapp, a Liverpool Football Club legend.
“Sorry to say this but I couldn’t care less in this moment, Jamie. It doesn’t look like somebody will get 100 [points] or whatever. In this season? Four weeks shorter? Same amount of games? I don’t think it’s possible. Even 87 [points] looks far away,” said Klopp before giving his take on what’s happened with Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk.
“My English is not good enough to describe exactly what went through my mind [with Gomez]. My head physio told me and everybody was sure it was serious immediately. No doubts. No hope it was only a little one.
“Injuries are part of the deal for players and managers. How they happen is something we are constantly worried about.”
“With the Van Dijk situation, it was not because of the intensity of the game. It was because of a very strange decision by one person [Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford] which made it hard to deal with.”
Jurgen Klopp once again hit out at fixture congestion and expressed his desire to have five subs available, instead of three.
“In football, it’s like this,” he continued.
“It looks like the whole world changed but the two things which stayed were the fixture list of the Premier League and three subs.
“If we were to win it this year it would be a big achievement to be honest. Maybe a bigger one. That’s what I love about the Premier League: there are so many contenders.”
“Our start was not so bad. Yes, we had a special game against Aston Villa (getting blown out in historic proportion 7-2). Maybe we needed that. We’ve used it.”
“Leicester on Sunday. Let’s see.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.