Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has hit out at people who criticise the club on social media platforms and said fans should not “panic” about their situation this season.
The Merseyside club have endured a disappointing campaign and could miss out on Champions League football for the first time since 2016.
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Liverpool’s form has been criticised this season but Klopp was defiant in his defence of his players after reading comments online about his team selection for their 2-1 win at West Ham United on Wednesday.
“It is good that we make the decisions and we don’t let the people who write on social media make the decisions, because that is the only one we hear,” Klopp told reporters.
“If you go to social media and look there you think: ‘Oh my god! There is no bigger problem in the world than our midfield!’ I understand it 100%.
“Somebody showed me after the last game we played, a thing on Instagram and what people write about our line-up. Not a lot of them wanted Curtis Jones on the pitch or Cody Gakpo on the pitch and when they saw Joel Matip was playing they say they will watch the other game. And these are people who usually like us.”
Klopp also said he was confident that the squad could improve next season and the club are looking to bring in new players in the summer.
“I understand that this season makes people nervous,” Klopp added. “We were not ourselves in big parts of the season, but we still have to make good decisions and not panic decisions where we say: ‘That’s it for him, he will never come back and play football for us again.’ That is not how it is.
“That is why I said that whatever we do in the summer, it will not be enough for these people [on social media] in the first place. We have to make decisions on what we know and on the basis of the things we know. That is exactly what we will do.
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“We have a lot of potential in this team and we didn’t show it enough this year. We will keep that, use that, improve that and bring new players in. That is both possible, I think.”
Klopp’s side host European qualifying rivals Tottenham Hotspur, who are without a win in their last three games and were humbled by third-placed Newcastle United last Sunday, conceding five goals in the opening 21 minutes.
Liverpool can overtake Spurs with a win at Anfield and although Klopp revealed he was surprised by their big loss at Newcastle, he warned his side that the London club still have a wealth of talent.
“I came home, I switched the television on, it was 1-0. I had something else to do, wanted to watch the game a bit later, when I came back it was 5-0,” Klopp told reporters.
“I honestly thought something was wrong with the television screen, something like a joke or something like that. I had to watch it back later. Newcastle are obviously in a very good moment … so these kind of things can happen.”
He added: “I cannot think about Tottenham in any other way than I expect them to be really strong. You give them one ball, it could be the wrong one and they go. Harry Kane can score from pretty much everywhere.
“They have real quality and we have to make sure they cannot show it.”
Information from Reuters was included in this report.