Jurgen Klopp has said he’s ‘aware’ that his previous achievements at Liverpool have allowed him to withstand a difficult season in the Anfield dugout.
He was speaking the day after two of his fellow Premier League managers saw their tenures come to an end, with ex-Reds boss Brendan Rodgers departing Leicester, while Chelsea dispensed with Graham Potter ahead of the Merseysiders’ visit to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night (Sky News).
There have now been 12 coaches dismissed in the top flight alone this season, with the German at the other end of the scale as the division’s longest-serving manager, having been in his current post for seven-and-a-half years and counting.
However, having joked about being ‘the elephant in the room’ in retaining his job given his team’s disappointing campaign while other clubs wield the axe, Klopp candidly admitted that his past success at Liverpool may have spared the Anfield hierarchy from making a big decision on him thus far.
Speaking in today’s press conference ahead of the Chelsea game (via LFC’s official YouTube channel), the 55-year-old said: “I’m aware of the fact that I’m sitting here because of the past, not because of what we did this season. If this would be my first season, it would be slightly different.”
The Reds currently find themselves eighth in the Premier League, the position in which they finished in Klopp’s first year at the helm in 2015/16, although it’s worth noting that he didn’t have the full campaign on Merseyside, having taken over from Rodgers in October.
As poor as 2022/23 has been, though, the German rightly has plenty of credit in the bank from winning major silverware and setting unprecedented points totals in recent years.
Also, it’s worth noting how he overcame a very testing 2020/21 season to then come within two matches of winning a historic quadruple with Liverpool last term, so let’s be thankful that patience prevails at Anfield when, in similar circumstances, many other clubs could’ve pushed the panic button by now.
You can catch Klopp’s press conference in full below, via @LFC on YouTube: