Klopp: Ranieri sacking just like Brexit and Trump

Matt Stead

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes the answer to Leicester’s problems this season lies with their players following the sacking of Claudio Ranieri.

Just nine months after leading the Foxes to the most unexpected of Premier League titles the Italian was shown the door at the King Power Stadium with the side entrenched in a relegation battle but still in the Champions League.

Klopp said he experienced a testing period immediately after Borussia Dortmund won the Bundesliga in 2011 but his squad battled through it.

“Am I surprised that things like this can happen? No,” he said. “It’s not only football. For me, there have been a few strange decisions in 2016-17… Brexit, Trump and Ranieri.

“Do I have to understand it all the time? No, obviously not. It happens still. I’ve no idea why Leicester (did) this.”

Asked whether it was difficult to motivate players once they had tasted success he said: “No I don’t think so but it depends on the players.

“If I think back 2011 we became champions and we had not the best start in the next season.

“I am pretty sure Ranieri didn’t change. He is too experienced for this.

“He found a perfect clue for this team last year – how to give them a plan – but I can’t say what happened there.”

Klopp takes Liverpool to Leicester on Monday wary of a side who may produce a reaction in the wake of the departure of their manager, as is so often the case.

But the Foxes’ situation is one which does not concern him specifically.

“Things I have no influence on I cannot really think about,” he added.

“Does it change a lot for us? Not sure, we will see.”