‘I heard’: Jurgen Klopp hits back against criticism of Ozan Kabak

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Jurgen Klopp isn’t happy with criticism of Ozan Kabak. He is fully backing the 20-year-old’s Liverpool displays.

Ozan Kabak has faced criticism early on in his Liverpool career. He certainly hasn’t always played well.

The Turkish international arrived on February first as much-needed defensive cover. Despite being just 20, Kabak immediately became the most experienced available centre-half.

Jurgen Klopp threw him into the side quite early on, too – before he could possibly have been up to speed. And that’s largely why the Liverpool boss believes that criticism is very unfair.

“So, I heard, I didn’t read it but I heard, there was some criticism when Ozan came and started playing and stuff like this,” said Klopp, per Liverpoolfc.com. “This is the world we are living in.

“You bring in a 20-year-old boy and everybody wants him to sort all our problems in one second and you don’t give him time at all.

“We don’t and we didn’t see it that way – and we are quite critical with ourselves and with the boys as well. Ozan played from the first moment on really good.”

The boss went on to describe Kabak as an ‘amazing talent’ and insists he’s ‘completely happy’ with his performances.

What RTK has to say

We’ve probably been too harsh on Kabak ourselves, in all honesty – guilty of expecting too much. If he’d arrived in the summer as a 20-year-old prospect, we’d be giving him a full year to adapt.

Instead, it was easy to make judgments on Kabak just weeks into his Liverpool career. In effect, we’re judging him as a first-team option, rather than a kid with great potential.

And that’s not very fair.

So perhaps there needs to be a distinction. Is Kabak an excellent young prospect? Absolutely. Is he ready to be a starting centre-back for Liverpool? No, not quite.

Liverpool have the option to sign Kabak in the summer, of course. Making that distinction will be key in that decision.

They must figure out what they want: someone first-team ready or someone who may be far better than that one day. As it is, Kabak doesn’t tick both boxes.

By the end of the season, though, perhaps he does.