Press conferenceJürgen Klopp explains Loris Karius situation
Jürgen Klopp has provided an explanation of Loris Karius' current situation at Liverpool.
The goalkeeper has been part of the training squad with the Reds since he returned from a loan spell at Union Berlin last season, though has not featured in a matchday squad in 2021-22.
Klopp was asked about Karius’ position at the club and the potential for him to thrive elsewhere in the future, during his pre-Brentford media preview on Friday.
That second part of the manager’s press conference also included questions on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Mohamed Salah. Read his replies below…
On Karius’ current situation and whether he can still have a ‘top-class career’ somewhere…
Yeah, definitely. So, there are different things. One is Loris Karius the player, who is doing absolutely nothing wrong, who is in a really good shape, who is training very hard. He is committed, the goalie coaches are fully committed, that’s clear. But before the season we made a decision. Obviously it was in the club’s interest as well that Loris finds a new club, stuff like this. That didn’t happen, so fine. We made a decision: he’ll be treated completely normally absolutely but we have the goalies. As long as we don’t have a massive situation here, our No.1 is Ali, our No.2 is Caoimh, No.3 is Adrian, No.4 is Marcelo and then there’s already four goalkeepers.
We were never in a situation where we had to use the fifth one. It has nothing to do with the quality, we made the decision and the boys do really well obviously. I think everybody is impressed by the development of Caoimhin Kelleher, who is ready for pretty much everything. We all know about the quality of Adrian and the impact he has on training and the dressing room and stuff like this and would always be ready to go. And Marcelo is an incredible talent, an absolutely incredible talent, the next one in line. That’s it. But Loris, I wish him only the best and he will find a club whenever – now or in the summer. And then from there he will go on, I’m very sure.
On Oxlade-Chamberlain’s form and if he needs to be playing regularly to see his best…
I’m very happy with Ox, but I know he was disappointed last night. I get that, 100 per cent – I would have been. The thing is, with the situation we are in we had to think how we start and how can we change? And obviously the game then developed slightly differently than we expected. Ox could have started, he’s in a good shape and he’s in a really good moment. For me, it was about starting how we started and we had with Curtis [Jones] and Oxlade two offensive options wherever we use them. That’s it. But I’m absolutely happy with Ox, to be honest, he’s in a really good moment and we will see that in the next few weeks.
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On the reasons for the delay in Salah signing a new contract…
I don’t know what I can say on top of what I said already. ‘What is the problem?’ I wouldn’t say there’s a problem, to be honest, these are conversations. If two big companies try to come together out there usually in normal life, in business, that’s not done overnight. A big contract, it’s not like buying a smartphone [that] you just sign one thing and it’s done. There are a lot of things to consider – some on the club’s side, some from the player’s side and a lot from the agent’s side. That’s the thing, nothing else.