Jurgen Klopp is under no illusions: he is the first to admit his position as Liverpool manager is under threat after his team’s implosion.
The Reds boss was bluntly honest in his media conference on Monday, addressing what he described as “the elephant in the room” of the sack, and admitting he’d be in real trouble if this were his first year at Anfield.
Klopp believes only his glorious past with the Merseyside club has stopped him being the next cab on the rank, after the high profile dismissals of Antonio Conte, Julian Nagelsmann, Graham Potter and Brendan Rodgers in the past week.
And with a certain gallows humour he said: “I think the elephant in the room is probably, from your point of view, why am I still sitting here in this crazy world, last man standing?
“I cannot really explain that to be honest. I am aware of the fact I am sitting here because of the past, not because of what we did this season. If it was my first season it would be slightly different, so that’s it.
“I know as well I am still here for what happened in the last few years, I don’t like the fact and pretty much I have to rely on that. Is it right or not? We will see that in the future.”
Klopp’s Liverpool collapsed again at Manchester City on Saturday, their latest humiliation in a growing list of them this season plunging them to eighth in the table.
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And he admitted he didn’t know whether his club’s American owners were losing patience, after his struggles to restore destroyed confidence at Anfield.
“Yes we have smart owners; they know about the situation, but to be 100pc you had better ask them yourselves why that is the case,” he said.
“I think we all accept this is part of the business. It is a strange week, Conte was last week, Nagelsmann and now these two so the season gets to a decisive part and people are afraid of maybe not reaching their targets.”
Klopp vowed to ring the changes for Tuesday’s visit to Chelsea, insisting he is not afraid of the sack, and will fight to put things right: “No, I’m not afraid,” he said, “I am here to deliver. I am not here as a talisman or whatever or for murals on a house wall. I am fully in, there is no doubt about it but we have to sort it.”
