Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has admitted that his squad hasn’t performed up to expectations this year and totally agrees with Mohamed Salah that the fans were let down by the club. Mohamed Salah’s statement saying there was “no excuse” for Liverpool’s failure to advance to the Champions League has been agreed upon by Klopp as a “completely normal” response to their miss out.
Liverpool are bound to finish fifth place this season after six straight seasons of top-four finishes, which resulted in three Champions League final appearances and a triumph in 2019. However, they have well short of Champions League qualification this season, and even crashed out of this year’s edition at the hands of Real Madrid.
‘He’s right’ – Klopp understands Mohamed Salah’s frustration
On Thursday night, Mohamed Salah sent a message on social media after Manchester United’s victory over Chelsea secured Liverpool’s spot in the Europa League for the upcoming campaign. The Egyptian remarked that he was “totally devastated” by how the Reds’ season had turned out and that there was “no excuse” for their inability to place in the top four. He said:
“I’m totally devastated. There’s absolutely no excuse for this. We had everything we needed to make it to next year’s Champions League and we failed. We are Liverpool and qualifying to the competition is the bare minimum.”
Jurgen Klopp has accepted that his team fell short of expectations this season and has no problem with Mohamed Salah’s claim that the players let down the fans. When asked if he concurred with Salah’s disapproving tone, Klopp said to reporters:
“It is completely normal. In the world of social media so many bad things happen constantly and I don’t think that was one of them. It was just a normal description of his situation, of his feeling, and in that moment directly after the game he’s right. It’s not the moment to immediately any send optimistic messages but maybe an hour or a day later.
“The moment when it is a fact you cannot qualify for the Champions League anymore… even when I knew after the last game [against Aston Villa] they [Newcastle and Manchester United] need only one point, for me it was clear they would get that point. So I drew kind of a line underneath it. I’m a very optimistic person but, in this moment, I couldn’t see it.
“It was just a normal description of his feeling, and he’s right, but I saw him in the canteen an hour ago and he was smiling. He is not in a bad mood.”
Liverpool would lose at least £50 million if they do not make the Champions League next season, but there may be short-term effects as well since top players may be less interested in competing in UEFA’s second-tier league. They have already pulled out of the race for their top target Jude Bellingham after learning that the midfielder’s asking price will be out of their reach. The Reds’ Premier League campaign comes to an end on Sunday when they travel to already-relegated Southampton.