The Norwich manager David Wagner and Klopp have been friends for over 25 years.
Joking aside, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said that his close buddy David Wagner had begged him to make significant changes for Norwich’s FA Cup matchup at Anfield.
After being teammates at Mainz, Klopp and Wagner have been friends for over 25 years; Wagner even served as the best man at his wedding. However, more lately, they have found themselves on different sides of the technical area.
During their brief Premier League tenure, Wagner managed Huddersfield, although they lost all three of their games against Liverpool.
He now brings the Canaries to Anfield on Sunday for a fourth-round match in the hopes of getting a favour from his old pal that he knows he won’t receive.
We’ve previously discussed it in our chats. I gave him a large rotation request. Regarding Wagner’s desire to play against a weaker team, Klopp remarked, “I told him that doesn’t help, obviously.”
The game is wonderful to have. He used to see a lot of games at the stadium while he worked at Huddersfield; now that he’s back, he’s returning to watch.
The next time we would have seen each other would have likely been in the summer, so it’s nice to meet up and get back into the saddle now.
Since we haven’t seen one other in a while, it’s nice to reconnect and exchange barbs.
Since taking over at Carrow Road in January of last year, Wagner’s team has a 40% win percentage; however, following a rough stretch from September to November, during which they won just twice, he has managed to get them back on track.
Their setback against Leeds, another Championship team vying for promotion, on Wednesday was just their fourth in their previous 16 games.
“It was a really tough job, but he did a really good job.” They played really well at first, then they kind of lost their offensive department, which is when they started to suffer,” observed Klopp.
They are currently within striking distance of the playoff slots, and they undoubtedly have important games ahead of them.
“The Championship season is already fairly intense, but because of the number of teams in the league and the number of games you have, it’s obviously very similar to a very successful Premier League season with international football or something like that if you have a longer FA Cup run.
“I just find everything he does to be interesting, so I try to keep up with it.”
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