Jürgen Klopp was amused by Sam Allardyce’s description of him as a “soft German” following his latest touchline altercation. The Liverpool manager was incensed by a Jeremain Lens tackle on Mamadou Sakho that he thought should have produced a red card rather than a caution, though denied any residual ill-feeling with Allardyce or his Sunderland staff.
“What he said about me is absolutely not a problem, I have been called a lot worse,” Klopp said. “If you watch the situation again I think you will see my judgment was not too wrong, but Mama is still alive and everything is OK now. I had no arguments with the Sunderland bench, there is nothing else to say, except that it might be the first time I have ever been called soft.”
Liverpool are at West Ham United on Saturday, where Klopp could have been in the opposing dugout had the London club’s owners had their way in the summer. The German was on West Ham’s shortlist of possible replacements for Allardyce, and has confirmed that contact was made, but made it clear that at that point he was not looking for a new club.
“In the summer I was not available,” he said. “Several clubs were in touch and I received a number of offers, but I told them all the same thing. I needed some time to myself without thinking about football. Only the timing was wrong. I think West Ham is a good club, and I like their nickname. I would not have minded being known as a Hammer, it would suit me a lot better than soft.”
West Ham won at Anfield in August, one of the results that led to Brendan Rodgers losing his job, and Klopp admitted that finding time to study the tape of the game had been hard in the hectic Christmas period. “I don’t want to keep going on about the number of games, maybe I have already spoken too often about it,” he said. “I knew about the situation before I came to England, and of course it is the same for every club, but it is still a challenge when you are in the middle of all the fixtures.”
Liverpool moved up to seventh as a result of their second 1-0 win of the festive season. Klopp feels they can play a lot better, and not many would disagree, but at least they are back to collecting important points. “We could have made our lives easier by making more of our early opportunities, but that is not always possible,” he said. “So what you have to do then is keep working and show patience. The biggest change in the last two games is that we have shown we can fight for results.
“The Sunderland game is not one we will talk about in 10 years’ time but we won. It is good that we can win difficult games like this without being at our best. You are not going to have a perfect day every week, and you have to find different ways to play, different ways to win. I think we are doing that now, and I am pleased. If you always wait for the easy game then it will not come along, that’s an old football rule.”
