Jurgen Klopp has responded to social media criticism of Liverpool’s starting XI against West Ham United on Wednesday.
Klopp named virtually the same line-up for the fourth game in a row, with Joel Matip for Ibrahima Konate the only change. It paid off for the Reds, a 2-1 win marking their third in a row. But speaking in his pre-Tottenham press conference, the Liverpool boss admitted that he’d seen some people online questioning his selections.
“It’s good that we make the decisions, and especially not the people who write on social media,” smiled Klopp. “If you go through social media and look there you think ‘oh my God, there’s really no bigger problem in the world than our midfield.'”
“Somebody showed me after the last game game [vs West Ham], Instagram or whatever, our line-up and what they write about it! Not a lot of them wanted Curtis [Jones] on the pitch, not a lot of them wanted Cody [Gakpo] on the pitch, when they saw that Joel Matip was playing, they said ‘game off, I’ll watch the other game’ stuff like this.
“I understand that this season makes people nervous. I understand that we were not ourselves in big parts of the season. But we still have to make good decisions.
“Whatever we do in the summer it will not be enough for the people, but that’s the job. We have to make decisions on the basis of the things we know, and that’s exactly what we will do.
Jurgen sticking to his guns
It’s interesting to hear that Klopp is keeping an eye on what’s being said about his team online. In truth, Wednesday’s game was probably one of the least controversial line-ups of the season. There can’t have been too many fans disappointed with the team at the London Stadium.
Nevertheless, there’ll always be someone grumbling. The likes of Jones and Matip haven’t exactly been top performers for Liverpool this season. But the midfielder in particular has done really well of late.
Either way, it doesn’t sound like Jurgen is taking too much notice, and nor should he. As he points out, he and his coaching team are more aware than anyone of who does and does not deserve a place in the side.
Then again, it would be wrong for him to completely dismiss what’s being said. As we saw last summer, the wants and needs of fans online shouldn’t always be written off as hyperbolic rubbish.
The whole Liverpool fanbase knew we needed midfielders. Online, in the stadium, locals, those thousands of miles away – everyone. Klopp addressed this on several occasions and was adamant that this was simply not the case, things were fine.
As it turned out, Liverpool absolutely were not fine. They needed midfielders without a shadow of a doubt. So, while it’s best to leave pros like Jurgen to do his job, the input of fans is always, always welcome.
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