The old ‘poking a bear with a stick’ routine.
Jurgen Klopp’s powers of motivation are legendary and the Liverpool players, and fans, have reacted largely positively to his manic remonstrations on the sideline.
The German wears his heart on his sleeve, and he clearly expects his players to do likewise, after he spoke about another Daniel Sturridge sulk on Saturday evening.
The England striker was replaced 18 minutes from the end of the 1-1 draw with Tottenham and stomped his feet as he got the curly finger from the bench.
He missed a glorious chance in the opening half, and while he did assist Philippe Coutinho for the first goal of the game, he looked a little bit short of sharpness.
Sturridge left the field in a strop, but Klopp is happy he has once again annoyed his first-choice striker.
“I like this – as long as he doesn’t come off the pitch and do something really strange, like kicking me from behind!”.
“I saw that he was not happy, because I’m not blind. But that’s not a problem, because if he came off and (celebrated) something would be really wrong.
“I think that’s completely normal — especially with the quality of Daniel Sturridge.”
https://twitter.com/ArfanAmile/status/716618273136226304
Klopp replaced Sturridge with Divock Origi and decided against the idea of playing two up front as Liverpool looked to secure a point against the championship-chasing Londoners.
The German admits that Sturridge may not always like the changes made, but tough.
“He has to think, ‘Leave me on the pitch and I can decide the game’. You have to think ‘Yes, I’m the best’. That’s true, but in this moment we needed other help in the game.
“I could have changed Adam Lallana and gone with two strikers but in my opinion — and only my opinion counts — it didn’t make sense, so that’s it.”
