Klopp: We have to become a club that nobody wants to leave

The media love a narrative and therefore much of their questioning ahead of tonight’s game at Manchester City saw them focus on Liverpool coming up against Raheem Sterling for the first time since his departure in the summer.

Saturday’s papers are dominated by quotes from Jurgen Klopp on a player he never managed, such is the media’s desire for a narrative.

“We don’t have to talk about the past and not about Sterling,” says Klopp – who seems to have quickly cottoned on to the media’s desire for stories.

“He’s a brilliant player, everybody knows this. Now he’s at Manchester City so we close the book. We have other good players, really good players, and that is what we have to think about.”

It’s like when journalists asked Brendan Rodgers about how a match being on the same date as the Olympiakos match 10 years ago might affect things. It won’t, why would it. Nobody cares.

Klopp instead preferred to focus on what Liverpool can learn from the Sterling saga, which saw a top talent leave for a higher placed club and more money – something Klopp himself experienced with several players leaving Borussia Dortmund for Bayern Munich.

“I don’t know anything about Sterling’s story but I know about similar stories and it is normal. This is Mario Götze’s story with Dortmund.

“You cannot hold the player when he doesn’t want to be there. It doesn’t work. So you have to take the money and do something smart with it. The only thing is how you react on this.

“First of all we have to try to become a club in the future that nobody wants to leave. Then we will have the problem that we have to send some players away because we have too many!

“That is ultimately what we have to do. And it’s possible – the weather in Manchester is not that much better than Liverpool so that is not the biggest advantage.”

Klopp went on to discuss the finances of football, insisting he’s here at Liverpool to build a team, not sign a new one.

“It’s better you have players in your own squad that are worth £100m and don’t want to leave, that’s the best thing. This is what we try to do for the future.

“The truth is I like to build up teams, it’s what I really like in football, but I have no problem with a different way. I’m not here at Liverpool because we cannot buy expensive players! No, no, no; different reasons.”