Jurgen Klopp said he had to keep his emotions in check during a “wonderful afternoon” at Anfield, where Liverpool fans welcomed their outgoing manager and took his team comfortably into the FA fifth round with a 5-2 win over Norwich Cups moved in.
Klopp’s name echoed at Anfield at the start and end of Liverpool’s first game since the shock news that their legendary manager was leaving at the end of the season. The German had asked fans not to chant “Jürgen is a red” and instead support the team’s continued pursuit of four trophies. He forgave the singing but admitted it was an emotional occasion.
“My job, and it’s not the easiest one, is to pull myself together,” said Klopp. “I received all the messages people sent. I’m not made of wood so I get all of these. I said not too long ago, “Don’t sing that song during the game.” People have obviously already stopped listening to me, so that’s good. But it is okay. We won the game and then scored a goal, so the reason for my superstition (about the song being sung) was solved. It was great.
“It’s the first game after (his announcement) and I’m not here to tell people what to do. We’ll just play again on Wednesday and if we could ignore the fact that the manager is leaving at the end of the season for 95-100 minutes and just do everything we can to make it as unpleasant as possible for Chelsea, that would be great. I know people know this too, so I don’t have to say it. But it was a wonderful afternoon in every way.”
Academy graduates Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah and debutant James McConnell all impressed, while Klopp was able to introduce Andy Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dominik Szoboszlai after their recovery from injury. It was Robertson’s first appearance since injuring his shoulder on international duty in October.
“Every minute they could get is really important and that helped share the intensity again,” Klopp said. “Darwin (Núñez) we started not because he played badly, but just because of the number of games we have played and will play. And the same goes for Joey (Gomez).
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“In four weeks we play the next FA Cup game, but until then we only play Premier League games and a final. Let’s make sure we’re ready for this. The boys are back and that’s great, but to be honest we’re playing pretty well without them. It’s not about who plays, it’s about how we play. We have to make sure we are the team Chelsea don’t want to play against and Arsenal aren’t the team we want to play against, so let’s see what we can do with the players we have available.”
