Brendan Rodgers has revealed that he had Jurgen Klopp, the man who replaced him as Liverpool manager this season, over to his house for a friendly chat when the German first took the job.
“Whatever help he needed going into the job as manager, I was there for that,” Rodgers told BeIN Sports.
The following is a transcript of that chat.
Liverpool won 5-4 at Norwich on an Adam Lallana goal in the fifth minute of added time after the home side equalized in the second minute of added time. It was a match that will go down as one of the best of the season and Jurgen Klopp celebrated as such, getting right in the middle of the Liverpool players’ celebratory mosh pit.
Of course, as anyone who wears glasses will tell you, this was never going to end well for his spectacles. And it didn’t. A flailing Christian Benteke hand accidentally knocked Klopp’s glasses off his face, breaking them in the process.
As a tie-in to National Hug Day, which is apparently a thing, Liverpool cut together a video of 22 Jurgen Klopp hugs from his first three months with the club.
We recently came to the realization that Klopp’s hugs are sucking the life force out of his players, so with that in mind, this video goes from sweetly adorable to deeply troubling.
You’re top of the table. Beating Liverpool 3-2 after coming back from 2-1 down. Olivier Giroud with a brace. Feeling good.
Liverpool visited League Two side Exeter City in the third round of the FA Cup and like Liverpool players’ hamstrings these days, the accommodations were tight. So tight, in fact, that Jurgen Klopp had to give his pre-match interview in the tea room, giving us the delightful image above.
At the end of the discussion on his side’s injury problems and rag-tag starting XI (look at these squad numbers!), Klopp lamented the fact that there was no cup with his name on it.
Back in November, we here at Dirty Tackle, your foremost source for serious and deeply researched journalism, reported that Jurgen Klopp was rejuvenating Liverpool with his powerful hugs. We now accept that this assertion could not have been more wrong and we regret the error.
“This is my ‘modeling jeans in an LL Bean catalog’ pose. Hi, I’m LA’s Steven Gerrard. You may remember me from such Liverpool moments as The Miracle of Istanbul and The Slip That Will Haunt Me Forever.”
I dare you to watch this video of Jurgen Klopp being interviewed by a nine-year-old (who you might remember from his equally endearing interview with Kolo Toure) and not come away loving the guy. I dare you. It’s impossible.
There are too many great moments to highlight, so just watch the whole thing and accept that Jurgen Klopp is just a delight. After this, I almost hope he gets sacked by Liverpool immediately so he can become a teacher because he would be great at it.
Sound like I’m slathering on the praise? Watch the video and you’ll think I’m holding back.
A lot has been made of Jurgen Klopp’s implementation of gegenpressing at Liverpool, but it’s become clear that something else is driving the club’s resurgence under their own manager: hugs.
Millwall fan Mike Bloomfield decided to name his newborn son Bermondsey Millwall Den Bloomfield without telling his wife (“Hey honey, you know that child you carried inside your body for nine months and then expelled in an unimaginably painful experience? Yeah, I gave it a ridiculous name behind your back! Love youuuuuu!”). For those who have no idea what any of those words mean, Bermondsey is the district of London in which Millwall play and The Den is their stadium.
