(Reuters) – Liverpool boss Juergen Klopp jokingly questioned why he still had a job as clubs around the Premier League sacked their managers as the season enters its home stretch.
Chelsea sacked Graham Potter on Sunday with the club sitting 11th in the league, hours after relegation-threatened Leicester City parted ways with Brendan Rodgers. Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur also parted ways with Antonio Conte late last month.
Klopp has been at Liverpool since 2015 but despite guiding them to Premier League and Champions League titles, he is under pressure with the Anfield club eighth in the standings — eight points off the top four after losing 4-1 to Manchester City.
“What can I say about that (the sackings)? The elephant in the room is probably why am I still sitting here in this crazy world? Last man standing,” Klopp told reporters ahead of Tuesday’s game against Chelsea.
“So I think both clubs are not in the spots where they expect to be… I respect them (Potter and Rodgers) a lot. Really good people and fantastic managers, both of them. But things can go wrong.
“We all accept that part of the business, but that’s it. Conte was last week, (Julian) Nagelsmann and now these two. The season is in a decisive part, people are afraid of maybe not reaching their targets.”
Nagelsmann was shockingly sacked by Bayern Munich during the international break despite being in a much healthier position in the league.
The Premier League has had a record 12 managers sacked this season, which Klopp described as an “awful number”.
“It is how it is. Some clubs are under achieving, definitely us too… There are expectations out there, rightly so, and if you don’t reach them, then you have to accept the decisions,” he said.
On his own future, the German manager said Liverpool have “smart owners” but he did not like the fact that he was still in the job because of his previous success with the club.
“I’m here to deliver, I’m not here as a talisman or for murals on houses’ walls,” he said.
“I know as well I’m still here because of what happened in the last few years, I don’t like the fact that I have to rely on that.
“But we have to sort it, we cannot just continue playing like we do from time to time. Not always, thank god. That’s not allowed, really. I’m really disappointed about us, but it happens and we have to find a way out.”
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
