Jurgen Klopp has sought to clarify his recent comments about Anfield, and revealed he’s now been told about the ‘family and friends’ process that complicates any ability to pass on tickets.
The manager has thrust the atmosphere to top of discussion points for fans leading up to the visit of Arsenal, after suggesting to “give your ticket to somebody else” if not ready to positively contribute.
We have since seen fans speak out about the issue with that suggestion, and supporters’ group Spirit of Shankly say there can be “no argument” with his comments but that there are “deep-rooted” Anfield concerns.
With the spotlight directly on his comments, Klopp sought to clarify what he was trying to say when emotions here high post-match.
“I don’t order atmospheres, it’s just we had two home games in a row and we had 62 finishes, I think. That’s pretty special, I would say,” Klopp told reporters on the eve of Arsenal‘s visit.
“That’s what football is all about, and imagine we would have scored all of them, that’s ridiculous.
“You will have these moments where you create a chance and you miss it. In our very best times, and I understand not everybody is now thinking, ‘Oh my god, Klopp is right’.
“It’s not about that. It’s my feeling directly after the game, it was exactly like that. I turned around and we missed a chance, people were sitting around flat and I thought, ‘what actually do you want?’
“Creating a chance is as close as you can get to score a goal, now the difference is in the very good times we all enjoy the situation, as we should do because we are in a pretty good position in the league.
“Maybe a bit quicker than people expect, [but the] difference for me is if you have a chance and you miss it, it’s ‘ugh’, but after that the stadium goes bonkers because immediately we go for the next chance.
“That was different, it was. It’s not a criticism.
“I enjoy 99.7 percent of each second in the stadium, I love it to bits,” he insisted.
“The atmosphere, these people, I know sometimes them [fans] are in and sometimes [others] are in, and I said give the ticket to somebody, now people explained to me only, ‘it’s not possible, only if it’s a family member’.
“I didn’t know that everybody would take me word for word, but maybe after all these years I should get used to that.
“I’m overly happy with everything, if we can do better people show us, fine. And now I said something and that’s all. If people wanted to understand me right, I think it was possible.
“I cannot change that now, and I have nothing to say about the atmosphere. What I said was we need Anfield tomorrow, and that’s 100 percent true. I can’t wait for the first whistle.”
And neither can we!
