Following Steven Gerrard‘s dismissal from his role as Aston Villa manager on Thursday, Jurgen Klopp has backed him to bounce back after a break.
Gerrard was sacked swiftly following a 3-0 loss to Fulham on Thursday night, having seen his side drop to 17th in the table after just two wins in 11 games.
The 42-year-old, who spent less than a year in charge at Villa Park, was then followed by five ex-Liverpool coaches in Gary McAllister, Neil Critchley, Tom Culshaw, Jordan Milsom and Scott Mason on Friday morning.
It marks a frustrating end to Gerrard’s first spell in charge of a Premier League club, and a blow to his chances of eventually succeeding Klopp at Anfield.
Speaking in his pre-Nottingham Forest press conference on Friday, Klopp offered his sympathy to his one-time colleague at Liverpool, saying “he will be back.”
“I’m very sure he will come back from that,” he told reporters.
“I’m seven years in Liverpool, even with not meeting very often for different reasons, he was in America, and when he was in the academy we could create a close relationship, I always followed him.
“We had a little exchange this morning, but nothing too deep or not a long conversation.
“I can imagine that it’s disappointing for him, because of the ambitions he had and the things he wanted to achieve with Aston Villa.
“It’s obviously not cool, but I don’t think we have to worry about Stevie.
“How he said himself yesterday after the game, he knows the game long enough and these kinds of things can happen.
“Always in life, we all get knocks here and there, but it’s about how he respond.
“You all know Stevie still better than I do. He always came back and he will come back from that, no doubt about that.
“Things like this can happen. A lot of great managers out there had to leave their previous clubs for different reasons.
“Some of the best did that quite frequently during their career and showed up somewhere else, learned from it, found a better situation, whatever.
“He will be back, 100 percent.
“But now I hope actually he takes a bit of time for him. Since he finished his career he’s pretty much working all the time.
“Maybe use it now a little bit for himself to recharge.”
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