Jurgen Klopp admitted that he had to “pull himself together” ahead of an emotional first game at Anfield since announcing his impending Liverpool departure.
The legendary manager announced that he is set to leave Liverpool at the end of the season, bringing to an end his trophy-laden nine year association with the the Merseyside club.
Klopp was noticeably emotional in the dugout prior to Sunday’s FA Cup clash with Norwich City at Anfield, having a tearing in his eye as Liverpool fans sang ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and held up banners paying homage to his success at the club.
Speaking to the press after the comfortable 5-2 win over Norwich, Klopp admitted that he struggled to hold it together ahead of the game.
“It is [emotional] but my job is to… it’s not always easy but I have to pull myself together and I received all the messages the people sent, I’m not made of wood so I get all of these,” Klopp said.
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“I said not too long ago, ‘Don’t sing the song during the game’ – people obviously stopped already listening to me, that’s good! But it’s fine, we won the game, we scored after that, so the reason for being superstitious is done in that case and it was great, and it’s the first game after that and I am not here to tell the people what to do.”
The manager was also keen to call on fans to create the same level of atmosphere on Wednesday when Liverpool clash with a resurgent Chelsea side at Anfield in the Premier League:
“It’s just that we play on Wednesday again and if we could then ignore for 95 or 100 minutes that the manager is leaving at the end of the season and just do everything to make it as uncomfortable for Chelsea as possible that would be great,” he asked.
“And I know the people know that as well so I actually don’t have to say it. But it was a wonderful afternoon in all parts of it.”
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