Jurgen Klopp says he has learnt a lot about life in 2020, but one of the main things is how important fans are to the general footballing landscape.
The coronavirus outbreak have seen supporters across Europe confined to watching their favourite teams at home and players being accustomed to the sound of silence inside stadiums.
For all lovers of the great game, it has been a challenging time, but while it has been difficult to watch at times, it certainly beats the alternative of no Football at all.
Reflecting on a calendar year that brought the Reds a long awaited title, the manager said (via the Official site) seeing fans even in a much reduced capacity at Anfield is a massive boost to the squad, but hopes it isn’t too long before more of them can come through the turnstiles throughout the country.
“We’ve played in front of a full stadium and won, then in an empty stadium and then with 2,000 and we won most of the games – not all of them but some of them. You can see the massive advantage, but I wish for everybody that they could have it, honestly.
“I don’t know how long we will have it and that’s what this year showed us: enjoy the good things as long as they are there because you probably should not take them for granted.
“I will never, ever in my life take a full stadium for granted, 100 per cent. After working at Mainz, Dortmund and Liverpool, I don’t think I played a home game for a long, long time in a not-sold-out stadium. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t think about it [and] how special it is. That, for sure, I will do much more in the future than I did in the past."
Always one to look at things in a philosophical way, Klopp saw the positives in winning the title in such a unique fashion, and that those memories will last a lifetime.
“People told me from time to time, ‘Oh my God, you became champions and it was 2020 and nobody could celebrate…’ and stuff like this. I actually saw it the other way around: imagine if the year would have been like it was and we wouldn’t have been champions. Then the year would have been really rubbish.
“For me, we had some highlights in a very tricky year. In a very tricky year for the whole world, we set some highlights for our supporters at least, for ourselves, for our families and for our friends.
“That’s the way I see it. It was a special year; I got a lot of experiences I didn’t want to make in my life, but I had to do, I did and will use it, hopefully. And we created some memories, which I will never forget for sure for good reasons."
Like many, Klopp looks forward to turning the page on this year and hopes for better days in a global sense.
“That’s the year. At 12 o’clock on New Year’s Eve and you wish all the best for the new year and stuff like this, never before in my life was it so serious when I [will] say it because I really wish 2021 will be better for all of us than 2020 was. Maybe we can, if we all wish the same this one time – all of us, the same – we can produce some positive energy and it will help."
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