Krishnan Sreekumar
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp admits he has sympathy for Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick
Speaking to Jamie Carragher in an interview with Sky Sports, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp admitted that he felt sympathy for Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick after going through a difficult period while in charge at Old Trafford.
Rangnick’s men travelled to Anfield last week to face Klopp and co, and came back to Manchester after suffering a humiliating 4-0 defeat. Liverpool had previously beaten United 5-0 at the Theatre of Dreams earlier in the season, when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was still the permanent boss.
Klopp said he can understand that it is really hard and difficult for Rangnick at the moment, but did not mean it to sound like him taking a shot at the former RB Leipzig man, given he is the manager of the Red Devils’ arch-nemesis.
“It’s really hard, I can imagine, and obviously Ralf Rangnick, and I know how it sounds when the manager of Liverpool says I feel a little bit for him, but it’s like that. I can understand it’s really difficult.”
Under Rangnick, United find themselves sitting in sixth position in the Premier League table. They are six points away from securing a Champions League qualification spot, with the teams ahead of them having a game in hand to take advantage of and increase their lead.
“It is how it is”
Liverpool, meanwhile, are sitting in second place in the points tally and are only one point away from table-toppers Manchester City. The difference in quality between the Reds and the Red Devils is evident from the league table, and on the pitch, it was made even more clear last week in Merseyside.
Klopp, however, believed that the Old Trafford outfit would sort out their situation and get back to winning ways, but for the moment, he is happy with his own situation at Liverpool. The LFC manager, of course, shares good relations with Rangnick in the past so even if it is coming from a rival boss, Klopp’s comments perhaps come as words of support from one friend to the other.
“But for the moment, it is how it is, and we are happy with our situation, and they will sort their situation.”
United will end this season having gone two league games without scoring against their arch-rivals in one of the biggest derbies in English football, while Liverpool have smashed nine goals past their opponents during those two games.
In terms of trophies as well, the Manchester side will have gone five years without a title in the summer while the Merseyside club are aiming to win the quadruple, after already claiming the Carabao Cup earlier this term against Chelsea in the final.
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The Red Devils have fallen off massively from where they once were, while Liverpool are making up for lost time and firing on all fronts under Klopp to secure all possible titles available to them. The Premier League is within their reach, they are into the semi-finals of the Champions League, and are due to face Chelsea in the FA Cup summit clash next month.
Rangnick, on the other hand, has overseen a UCL and an FA Cup exit over the past few months and will give up his manager’s seat in the dugout in the summer when his tenure as interim boss expires to make way for a new permanent manager. Hopefully, the new man in will work hard to rectify this gap between Liverpool and United, and get us back to where we once were.
