'Our dressing room atmosphere allows players to develop potential'
Jürgen Klopp believes Liverpool’s dressing room culture provides the perfect environment for players to develop and maximise their potential.
The manager feels the atmosphere within his squad provides the basis for those within it to perform on the pitch to the best of their ability.
Asked about Sadio Mane being named as the CAF African Player of the Year earlier this week and what that said about the development of his squad, Klopp replied: “I think in the last three years we always had the African Player of the Year. It was twice Mo Salah in a row – and was always well deserved - and this year it was Sadio and it is well deserved as well.
“It’s really nice. We all know how the world works and it gives the club a big boost in that part of the world, 100 per cent – and that’s good and I love that fact.
“These boys, first and foremost, they are responsible by themselves for the development they made. They were good players – really good players – before we signed them. That was the reason why we signed them and we are not this kind of a project where we think 'let’s have a look if it will work'. We are convinced in the moment we can bring them in that they really can help us and push the team, or the other player in that position or whatever. That all worked out pretty much.
“That’s absolutely exceptional, but it only works because of the environment, it only works because of the atmosphere the boys create by themselves in the group. That’s really, really good and now for the kids especially when they come up, the role models they have couldn’t be better.
“If as a Scouser, it’s Trent for Curtis with dealing with these things. Life is a dream as a professional football player. You are five or six or seven hours a day here but the day has more hours [than that] so then you go back and you are still a Scouser who everybody is pulling from all sides and wants you to be this kind of representative for all Scousers in the world or whatever!
“That’s not ever one second easy, but as a professional football player with Millie, with Hendo, with Adam, it is just incredible. That is the thing that creates the situation where the young boys can learn from what is allowed, what is not allowed, how much can I express myself, how much do I have to express myself and how much do I have to be just a normal guy in the dressing room.
“That makes the development and I am really, really happy that we have these kinds of characters here because that makes my job massively easier.”