Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is reportedly ‘furious’ at former Reds midfielder Didi Hamann over his criticism of assistant manager Pep Lijnders.
The Reds have had a terrible season so far with Jurgen Klopp’s side sitting in tenth ahead of Monday’s Merseyside derby against Everton at Anfield.
Liverpool are 12 points adrift of fourth-placed Newcastle United, who they currently have two games in hand on, while they are 22 points behind leaders Arsenal.
Lijnders wrote about the rigours of the 2021-22 season in his book with the Reds coming very close to winning an unprecedented Quadruple.
Hamann questioned the timing of the book release in September, he wrote on Twitter: “The alarm bells should have been ringing for Liverpool fans when the current assistant manager wrote a book while still employed by the club. How he was allowed to do it I’m not too sure.”
He then followed that up with a tweet in January, he added: “The only question is whether the club benefited from it and the simple answer is no. His job is not to educate other coaches while he’s getting paid by Liverpool.”
And The Athletic claim that Klopp is ‘furious’ at Hamann’s comments about Lijnders and other people’s criticism of their fitness department.
The Athletic wrote:
‘He is known to be furious at reports suggesting that some within the camp have questioned the role of Andreas Kornmayer, his head of fitness and conditioning, and at former Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamann’s questioning of assistant manager Pep Lijnders. As personally as Klopp has taken criticism of his players at times this season, criticism of the coaching staff has gone down even worse.’
Hamann has also questioned whether Klopp will have the energy to build another successful Liverpool side.
The former Liverpool midfielder said in January: “Discussions about the manager may start, although I don’t think Liverpool will sack him. Klopp has played at the limit with Liverpool in terms of financial conditions. That worked for six years, but players that you could get for £25m a few years ago are now £50m or £60m.
“But if you don’t spend £200-300m on new players in one summer, it will be incredibly difficult if not impossible to fight against rivals Manchester City, Newcastle or Arsenal.
“Klopp has been at Liverpool for seven years now and his job is incredibly intense and stressful. Does he have the energy again to build a new side under the financial constraints the club faces compared to other top clubs? I don’t know how he feels about it if his team didn’t have anywhere near a chance of becoming champions.
“Klopp has earned hero status at Liverpool. The question is whether he wants to risk it or give it up.”
