"Ramos is ruthless and brutal … I hold him responsible"

The question takes him by surprise. Jurgen Klopp is installed in a conference room of the Liverpool hotel and is preparing to discuss the new season.
Before starting to look to the future, Klopp is invited to return to Liverpool's 3-1 loss to Real Madrid. Final of the Champions League. Or more precisely the incident in the 26th minute that led Mohamed Salah to leave the field in tears following the challenge of Sergio Ramos.
Ramos, the totem of modern Madrid, says a lot about the subject, among others by claiming Salah. was removed too soon and could have continued with the help of a painful injection. So what did Klopp do with all this?
"We open this bottle again?", He replies.
There is a puff of cheeks and a long pause. Once Klopp has gathered his thoughts, he continues to talk, uninterrupted, for 10 minutes. The words he chooses are straightforward and leave no doubt that he holds Ramos accountable.
"I've looked back at this, of course," Klopp said. Someone showed me immediately after the match. But if you look at him and you are not with Real Madrid, then you think he's ruthless and brutal. You do not think, "Wow, good challenge". It was ruthless.
"I do not think Mo would ever get hurt in this situation, this time it was unlucky. But it's an experience we can not have. I'm not sure if it's an experience we'll have again. Go there and nudge the goalkeeper, put his striker down like a wrestler in the middle and then you win.
"It was the story. Ramos said a lot of things that I did not like. As a person, I did not like his reactions. He was like, "It does not matter, what do they want, it's normal!" This is not normal. If VAR arrives, it's a situation where you have to look again, not to give a red card, but to say, "What is it?"
"If you put all Ramos situations together – and I've watched football since I was five – then you'll see a lot of situations with Ramos. In the final the previous year, against Juve, he was responsible for the red card for Juan Cuadrado.
& # 39; The outside world accepts that you use each weapon to win the game. People are probably waiting for me to be the same. I am not.
Now he has found his rhythm.
"If you write, people will say that I am weak, a bad loser, or a whiner," says Klopp. "I'm not. I accept it. You asked me about it. It's not like I'm waking up in the morning and thinking "RAMOS!" (He jumps on his chair to take effect) I'm fine. We were a competitor. But in a final you have to have a little luck and we have not had it. Then there was the situation with Loris.
A situation that only became fully apparent three days after Liverpool's return from Kiev. Loris Karius, their goalkeeper, had been elbowed in the head by Ramos. No fault has been given and the German has never asked for treatment. He was then diagnosed with a concussion after being examined by Dr. Ross Zafonte and Dr. Lenore Herget at Boston Mbadachusetts General Hospital
What did you think of when (this story)? ) is out? & # 39; Klopp request. & # 39; Come. Be honest. "
The honest answer is that many have seen as an excuse, a story designed to offer protection to a goalkeeper whose mistakes led to Madrid's first and third goals." Klopp takes it all on board before putting in before the reality of the situation.
"Franz Beckenbauer called me", explains Klopp. "He started with," Your goalkeeper had a concussion ". I said what? "He said:" I come from (Bayern Munich doctor) Hanz Muller-Wolfhart and he said that he knew immediately in the situation that Loris had a concussion when Ramos "The people said we were making the medical report public because it is political.This is not.We did not use it for a second as an excuse But how do you not explain it? The problem is that people still do not believe it. Then we bring in a new guardian and people think we do not believe it too. "
L & # 39; Karius' future in Liverpool is uncertain.The 25-year-old told Sky Germany this week that he was unhappy with the arrival of Alison Becker of Roma, a 65 million-pound world record.
Klopp and Karius have been talking about these days but the manager wants to insist on this point about Brazil No. 1 Alisson, which will join the team for a training camp in France next week.
"If Alisson was on the market and we had won the final, we would have left him," says Klopp, "He's the goalkeeper we want." The other goalies are really good, like all our other players, but that does not mean that we do not introduce another, we try to improve our own situation. "
And Liverpool has certainly improved its situation over the last 63 years Naby Keita and Fabinho, two midfielders who cost nearly 100 million pounds, added depth and clbad to the engine room.Xherdan Shaqiri was a £ 13million Stoke purchase that Klopp says made & # 39; full sense & # 39;.
But as Klopp knows, huge investment brings huge expectations. Liverpool rivals watch their every move, applying pressure in every way possible
Nobody did it more than mana Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, who says that there is a "demand" on Liverpool to become champions. The sides face each other in "The Big House" in Ann Arbor tonight.
"I heard that he was smiling when he said it and found it funny," says Klopp, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "So I'm really happy that José is smiling! This does not happen often! Would I speak today about José Mourinho if you did not ask me? Of course not. I'm not sure but probably José would not talk about me if nobody asked him. Jose tries everything to put pressure on people and improve his own situation.
"If he spends for money – and I'm not the best to count what we spent in recent years – but I would say we are both in, Manchester United has probably spent a little more – at least net.It's like that.This is not important. "
What is important, is to advance Liverpool.
" It's not just signing, he says before we leave, we have a good team, we always have a good team but the rest have good teams, they will not sleep. "