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Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp: directors, not players, are undermining managers

Jürgen Klopp takes his Liverpool side to Leicester on Monday, with the champions now managerless following Claudio Ranieri’s sacking.
Jürgen Klopp takes his Liverpool side to Leicester on Monday, with the champions now managerless following Claudio Ranieri’s sacking. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Jürgen Klopp has denied player power is on the rise and claimed the biggest threat to managers such as Claudio Ranieri are directors with a direct line of communication to the dressing room.

Ranieri was sacked as Leicester City manager on Thursday amid reports of a dressing‑room revolt among players he turned into Premier League champions nine months previously.

Senior Leicester players are believed to have met the club’s owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, and his son, the vice-chairman Aiyawatt, hours after the 2-1 Champions League defeat in Sevilla to voice dissatisfaction with the Italian. The Guardian reported earlier in the month how Ranieri was facing growing unrest not only from players but the club’s staff as Leicester’s Premier League campaign descended into a fight against relegation.

Klopp takes his Liverpool team to Leicester on Monday aiming to capitalise on the problems at the King Power Stadium but unconvinced by claims that player power got Ranieri the sack. The Liverpool manager insists players held more sway during his playing days and what really undermines a manager is an owner, director or executive who holds court with the dressing room.

“Players are not more powerful, we were much more powerful as players in the past,” Klopp said. “It depends always on the board and if there is a direct way to the board. If the owners sit with the players and ask ‘How are you?’ and they will say ‘Not too good’ then it is ‘Why?’ ‘Because of the manager.’ I have never had this situation where there is a direct line to the owner or whatever. As long as the players talk together there is no problem. If they start talking about you? For this you need an ear on the other side.

“It is not about how powerful. The players need to be powerful but not in sacking managers. They never did it. It’s not like the Leicester players did it or something. Someone asked and they gave an answer.”

Klopp had seven-year spells as manager at both Mainz and Borussia Dortmund and, while success undoubtedly enabled him to leave the two clubs on his own terms, he believes a respectful working relationship with players ensured he has never been sacked. “I don’t know if it’s weakness [when a board contacts players] but it’s the situation,” he said. “I never had it but I know it has happened.

“To maintain the relationship, it’s not like we come together every day and hug each other. We enjoy the work. I know what they want, they know what I want, so it is very good information. We’ve had some nice moments already and hard moments already and in the hard moments nothing came between us, not in the whole of January. Absolutely nothing. I did not say: ‘How can I win if they don’t deliver?’ because I didn’t think it. And they didn’t say they could win if only I said the right things, because they didn’t think it.

“Nobody expects perfection. I don’t expect it from them and they don’t from me. It is pretty simple and being good together is not too difficult. It is all full of respect. As long as they work really hard I am a really nice person. Not always in training, but I always respect. I will then decide who will start. If they start not working – and that does not mean running it means concentrating on what you need to play football, listening – then I am not a nice guy actually, but none of the players expect me to let them do what they want. They know someone has to make the rules and it is long ago I made them, and now we have to respect them.”

Jordan Henderson, the Liverpool captain, summonsed a team meeting before the recent Premier League win against Tottenham Hotspur in response to a damaging run of one win in 10 games. It was a move welcomed by Klopp, who could be without Dejan Lovren and Daniel Sturridge against Leicester due to a knee injury and illness respectively.