MY ACCOUNT
Jurgen Klopp has hit back at criticism by Dietmar Hamann suggesting his Liverpool job could be in doubt.
The Anfield club have made their worst start to a Premier League season under the German boss after picking up just 10 points from their first eight games following Sunday’s 3-2 defeat to Arsenal.
Hamman, who won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005, said questions may be asked of the manager if results do not improve and added that the Merseysiders need to find a “spark”.
Those comments were put to Klopp ahead of their trip to face Rangers at Ibrox in the Champions League tonight.
He said: “Oh great, he is a fantastic source. Well respected everywhere.
“[Being a former Liverpool player] doesn’t give you the right to say what you want, especially when you have no idea.
“I actually think Didi Hamann doesn’t deserve that you use his phrase when asking a question. Do me a favour and ask your own question. Try to ask the question without the word ‘spark’.”
Reds fighting on
Klopp’s misery was compounded after it was confirmed Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joel Matip are both out for up to three weeks with injury, while Luis Diaz will be sidelined until after the World Cup.
They add to the list of casualties the Reds are contending with, with Naby Keita, Curtis Jones, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and summer loan signing Arthur Melo unavailable for the trip north of the border.
While currently up against it, Klopp preferred to see the positive side of the situation and vowed that his team will come out fighting in Glasgow this evening.
He added: “If you sleep on a problem, sometimes you realise life goes on. I just stood there at Arsenal and we had lost the game. I knew already that we had three big injuries.
“So how can I, in this moment, not feel downbeat? It’s not possible.
“But then you get information on the injuries step-by-step and it’s two or three weeks rather than my fear of eight weeks for Alexander-Arnold. The other injury, for Matip, is not too long as well and the other is out for as long as we expected.
“This is a tough situation but it is also a challenge. We always face challenges but we go for it and I am sorry to all our people that after last season we go again and it’s not the case that we are competing for everything.
“I cannot promise that we will fly tomorrow but we will fight, definitely, until someone tells us the fight is over.
“It hasn’t got easier since Sunday because of the injuries but the team I saw in training I liked a lot. So let’s give it a go.”
Ibrox cauldron
Rangers midfielder John Lundstram wants to use the “aura” of Ibrox to get the better of Liverpool tonight.
The Gers are participating in Europe’s elite competition for the first time in 12 years but have begun their Group A campaign with three defeats from three and no goals scored.
They head into tonight’s clash with the second-placed Reds as underdogs despite their opponents’ patchy start.
But Liverpudlian Lundstram, 28, insisted the atmosphere may give the home side an extra edge, just as it did during their run to the Europa League final last term.
The boyhood Reds fan said: “There’s something special about Ibrox on European nights. Anyone who has been here will have felt the atmosphere, felt the aura around the place.
“There’s just something that happens underneath the lights here, I don’t know what it is, I can’t put my finger on it.
“It gets everyone and gives you a lift. There’s something in the air and hopefully that can be the same again tomorrow.”
Liverpool were 2-0 winners in the reverse fixture at Anfield last week, with Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s outfit struggling to put up much of a fight against last season’s Champions League finalists.
Determined to present more of a challenge this time, the former Sheffield United ace added: “It’s great to come up against these players but they’re on the other team.
“You’ve got to block that out and play your own game and show them respect to a certain extent, but at the same time show them no respect as well.
“We have to try and get in amongst it.
“A lot of players can be great players when you have time on the ball, I think we’re great players when we have time on the ball but when you get up in someone’s face, things change.
“Hopefully if we can do that and our midfield match their midfield, that will be key.
“As long as we’re up against them and laying a glove on them, hopefully we can get something.”
