Virgil van Dijk has suggested that Jurgen Klopp is often unhappy with how things are going in team meetings, and has admitted that the Liverpool manager is hard on him sometimes.
The Reds have lost just one Premier League game all season, but the Dutchman has claimed that his boss is always striving for more.
Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, he said: “He is hard on me and he has also given me confidence when I’ve needed it. He knows there’s definitely a lot of things that can improve still.
“He will not show anything else, he is who he is. He’s just like how you are as a player, when things are going well you can be happy, and when things aren’t going well you can be very angry.
“He is very passionate. He will tell you the truth at all times. He won’t go beating about the bush. That’s something I personally like a lot and most of our players like it as well.
“We have plenty of meetings throughout the whole season where he is definitely not happy about some things.
“That’s a good sign. Even when we’ve only lost one [Premier League] game all season there have been some moments where we can do much better.”
OPINION
It’s hard to imagine Klopp being unhappy with his players, but the reality is that he is only human, and a little bit of grit and anger probably go a long way in a title challenge. The German always seems like one of the most affable managers in the game, but according to van Dijk, he also has another side that he shows less often. That can only be a good thing. Clearly it’s never malicious, and evidently his players love him for it, but on the basis of the defender’s account it sounds like there is a certain amount of honesty that goes into every incremental improvement. There’s no point in being everybody’s best friend if you’re getting beat week after week, and Klopp appears to have struck a balance whereby he is able to get his players on side with his humungous charisma and positive outlook, but also has their respect enough to be able to crack the whip and get results. To find that balance so well is immensely rare and deserves recognition.
