“We paid too much money for them!” – Jurgen Klopp jokes about transfer fee involved in signing Liverpool duo

Jurgen Klopp jokes about duo's price-tags
Jurgen Klopp jokes about duo's price-tags

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was at his usual comedic best when answering questions following his side's 5-0 demolition of RB Leipzig in a pre-season friendly on July 22.

The Reds romped to victory through an early Mohamed Salah strike and a four-goal haul from club-record signing Darwin Nunez in the second half.

The performances of former Leipzig duo Naby Keita and Ibrahima Konate were under scrutiny, with the duo playing against their former side.

Klopp was asked by RB Leipzig's YouTube channel what he made of the performances of the duo in which he jokingly responded (via Mirror):

"Yeah, even though you paid us a little and we paid too much money for them!"

Liverpool forked out £52.75 million to sign Keita and £36 million to sign Konate. The duo laughed in reaction to their boss's joke.

The German heapred praise on the pair, adding:

"These are two great guys you've given us... We're still really happy."

Klopp was evidently pleased with the performance from his side in the 5-0 thrashing of Leipzig, continuing:

"I would have bought it actually. It's really nice. You see everything."

Touching on the game itself, he said:

"First half – good moments, lesser-good moments, not enough movement, we need to get used to how hard it is to play 50, 60, 70 minutes – and in the end 90 or 120. The human body is like this, you need to get used to it again. When we struggled a little bit it was always after three minutes' break we played football again, then a deep breather and play football again."

Klopp concluded:

"And I wanted us to be a bit more hard with ourselves, go over that point, it's pre-season. And move more. I think we did that second half obviously. [ Jordan Henderson ] came on, [ James Milner ] – they both were lively. Hendo all of a sudden as an eight, went in behind and we created chances. Then Mo [Salah] gives Darwin the penalty and Darwin, Pandora's box was open. That's of course a perfect night for him."

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp turns his attention to Red Bull Salzburg

The Liverpool boss has been merry during pre-season
The Liverpool boss has been merry during pre-season

Next up for Liverpool on their pre-season tour is a trip to Austria to face Red Bull Salzburg on July 27.

Jurgen Klopp is looking forward to the game against the Austrian side as he continues his preparations ahead of the Premier League season.

He told the aforementioned source with regard to the friendly fixture:

"Very much [looking forward to it]. We need that time now. We are not even close to where we want to be physically. We have to get there. The weather and everything is difficult, it will be difficult in Austria as well. It's good...the most important part of pre-season starts now."

Quick Links

Edited by S Chowdhury