Change is good – Jurgen Klopp asks Liverpool to embrace future under Arne Slot

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp told Anfield to never stop believing and to welcome his successor Arne Slot like they welcomed him as “change is good”.

Speaking at a presentation on the pitch, made by owners John W Henry and Tom Werner, chief executive Billy Hogan and Sir Kenny Dalglish after the 2-0 victory over 10-man Wolves, the German addressed the crowd and offered a positive outlook on the future.

“You welcome the new manager like you welcomed me. You go all-in from the first day. And you keep believing and you push the team,” said Klopp, who sang the name of Arne Slot to the tune of one of the songs the crowd sing about him.

“People told me that I turned them from doubters to believers. That’s not true. Believing is an active act: you have to do it yourself. I just said we have to. You did it. That’s a big difference.

“And nobody tells you now to stop believing. Because this club is in a better moment than ever. Maybe ever – I have to ask Kenny – but since a long time, let me say it like that.

“We have this wonderful stadium, wonderful training centre, we have you, the superpower of world football.

“We decide if we are worried or excited. We decide if we believe or don’t believe. We decide if we trust or we don’t trust. And since today I’m one of you and I keep believing in you.

“I stay a believer, 100 per cent. Change is good.”

Klopp is certain he leaves the club in a good position to move forward after him and the performance against Wolves only reinforced that, even if the focus was on him for almost the entire game.

“I was a bit afraid of a breakdown – I had one or two moments during the week when it was not great and during the game the last few minutes was tricky but the genuine feeling for me today was it felt more like a start than an end,” he said later of his emotions on the day.

“I saw a wonderful team on the way. I saw a team who is ahead of schedule in their development.

“It is time for me to go. It is not burning behind me so that gives me a good feeling.”

Klopp intends to give himself a year to spend with his family before deciding on his future and insists he has had no thoughts about what he would do next, although he suggested it may not involve a return to football.

“I don’t know exactly why nobody believes I will probably not be a manager again but I understand because obviously it seems to be a drug,” he said.

“It looks like that as everybody comes back and everybody works until they are 70-something. I have always had the idea I won’t do that.

“Other people are smarter and do it in different ways, but I have to be all-in. I have to be the spark, I have to be the energiser, I have to be all these kind of things. And I am empty. That’s it.

“It’s not that I’m looking outside for the next opportunity and which clubs are available and stuff like this.

“There will be opportunities but I’m not thinking, ‘maybe in a year’s time I’ll take that’. In this moment, ‘see you later’.”

Wolves want clubs to vote on the abolition of VAR at next month’s Premier League meeting and head coach Gary O’Neil had cause to complain again at Anfield as he felt Nelson Semedo’s red card for a challenge on Alexis Mac Allister, after VAR intervention, was not warranted and also they should have had a penalty for Virgil van Dijk’s shoulder-to-shoulder challenge on Matheus Cunha.

“The VAR doesn’t even pause it at the right place when he’s watching it back. They pause it when Nelson’s foot is really high, in line with his shin, and he hasn’t made contact yet – he misses his shin and lands on his foot,” he said.

“There is no way VAR was brought in to get involved in things like that when the referee has been really clear that it is a yellow card.”

On Cunha’s penalty appeal, O’Neil added: “Normally side-to-side with contact that isn’t given but I thought he got on the wrong side of him and if you put an arm on him you run a real risk of giving a penalty.

“When the ref doesn’t give it you are pretty sure it won’t be overturned.”