Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum was “really angry” with him after he left him out of the Champions League semi-final second leg last season.
Liverpool were trailing 3-0 from the first leg against Barcelona but Klopp managed to select a team that won the second leg 4-0 and sent the Reds into the final.
Klopp was asked by Jamie Carragher about how he handles leaving players out of the starting XI, the Liverpool boss told Sky Sports: “The players know usually a day before the game, maybe even two days before a game.
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“I never made the line-up in the hotel. I want them to prepare for it. But again, I treat them individually, that means if a player who played the last 20 in a row isn’t playing the next game, it’s not a big problem, but I still tell him.
“Like normal rotation during a season, when you have three games a week, I change the front line or the midfield quite a lot, I don’t tell the boys, I explain it once at the beginning of the season or at a specific point in the season and then it is clear.
“You might start today but not the next game. I have to always judge the situation in the moment.
“Like in the Champions League semi-final second leg last year, I realised after the game as people told me that Gini Wijnaldum was really angry that he didn’t start! I didn’t see it in training!
“That’s the most important thing; I tell the boys they don’t have to be happy with my decisions, they just have to accept them, and after the game we can speak about it, we can talk about it. Before the game, we cannot.
“So when I make a decision on the training field and go through the line-up, and then a player looks at me and thinks: ‘What idea is that?’ or ‘Why don’t I play?’ – that shows me that a player doesn’t understand our situation.
“The next game is the most important thing. You have to respect that. If you come to me in that moment or don’t train well in that moment, then you could have problems with me, really.
“But if you are in a session, I can see you are not happy but you train well, you come to me on a Monday morning in my office, door is open, and we can talk about it and I can explain if there is something to explain.
“You say I am the friend of the players? Believe me, around match day I am friend of exactly 11 players! Haha! And all the others have some points or some things to criticise if you would ask them then!”
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