Jürgen Klopp on 2020, fans inside Anfield and Reds' first-choice penalty taker
“A special one, 100 per cent,” is how Jürgen Klopp summarised 2020 as Liverpool prepare to contest their final Anfield fixture of the year.
The Reds host West Bromwich Albion on Sunday aiming to strengthen their grip at the top of the Premier League table in their defence of the title.
The crown was, of course, won in June, ending a 30-year wait; however, just as it has on everyday life, the COVID-19 pandemic has also had a considerable impact across the game.
Not least in terms of matches being played behind closed doors, though Liverpool will have 2,000 supporters present against West Brom for a third successive Anfield tie.
Klopp was asked about 2020 as a whole and the benefits of the presence of fans inside the stadium during a press conference on Thursday, as well as discussing who his side’s first-choice penalty taker is.
Read on to see what the manager had to say to reporters…
On how he’d reflect on the year 2020…
As a special one, 100 per cent. People told me from time to time, ‘Oh my God, you became champions and it was 2020 and nobody could celebrate…’ and stuff like this. I actually saw it the other way around: imagine if the year would have been like it was and we wouldn’t have been champions. Then the year would have been really rubbish! For me, we had some highlights in a very tricky year. In a very tricky year for the whole world, we set some highlights for our supporters at least, for ourselves, for our families and for our friends. That’s the way I see it. It was a special year; I got a lot of experiences I didn’t want to make in my life, but I had to do, I did and will use it, hopefully. And we created some memories, which I will never forget for sure for good reasons. That’s the year. At 12 o’clock on New Year’s Eve and you wish all the best for the new year and stuff like this, never before in my life was it so serious when I [will] say it because I really wish 2021 will be better for all of us than 2020 was. Maybe we can, if we all wish the same this one time – all of us, the same – we can produce some positive energy and it will help!
On the benefit of having 2,000 fans inside Anfield…
In our specific case, it’s a massive benefit from an emotional point of view. It is just nice, it is just much more enjoyable. I think result-wise now so far it didn’t make the biggest difference. We’ve played in front of a full stadium and won, then in an empty stadium and then with 2,000 and we won most of the games – not all of them but some of them. You can see the massive advantage, but I wish for everybody that they could have it, honestly. I don’t know how long we will have it and that’s what this year showed us: enjoy the good things as long as they are there because you probably should not take them for granted. I will never, ever in my life take a full stadium for granted, 100 per cent. After working at Mainz, Dortmund and Liverpool, I don’t think I played a home game for a long, long time in a not-sold-out stadium. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t think about it [and] how special it is. That, for sure, I will do much more in the future than I did in the past.
On Liverpool’s penalty takers…
James Milner is No.1 penalty taker, but when James is not playing then it’s Mo. When Millie is on the pitch then he can decide. How it is always, sometimes you don’t feel 1,000 per cent or you think, ‘He’s scored two already’ and this kind of stuff. That didn’t change, we didn’t speak about it for a long, long time. Most of the time, probably Millie was not on the pitch but I think I remember at least once when Millie was on the pitch and gave it to Mo. For me, it is only important that the ball is in the back of the net after whichever player from my team shot the ball. Millie gave us a pretty impressive number of penalties he finished off and Mo as well. So, that’s for me both fine and that’s how it is in the moment, that’s how the decision is.
On Liverpool and Everton being the only two Premier League clubs able to have fans inside the stadium for home matches…
What I can say [is] we have nothing to do with it. As a club, we have nothing to do with it. It’s not that we have any hand in the decision. It says something nice about the Liverpool people, probably. We had early mass testing four or five weeks ago, maybe longer than that. I am not a specialist, so I don’t know exactly how influential that was. How I said, I wish everybody could experience it. I don’t see it as a massive advantage, but it’s just nicer. I understand that everybody else wants to have in the best possible way and if we have 2,000 and nobody else has 100 or whatever then, yes, I can imagine people will talk about that. From my point of view, long may it continue that we can keep people in the stadium but with the new tier system, it doesn’t look very likely. There are still bigger problems out there and as long as the deciders allow us to bring people in, I think that’s a really good sign. In the moment they say it’s not possible anymore then we have to wait for the next moment when it’s possible again.