Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp confirms squad held a vote and three new players have made it in to the ‘players’ committee’
Jurgen Klopp has revealed his decision to extend his players’ committee at Liverpool from three to six this season.
And the Reds boss explained how Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson and Alisson were all elevated as a result.
Last season, the Reds had a four-man group of internal ‘leaders’ in the squad with club captain Jordan Henderson and vice skipper James Milner joined by Virgil van Dijk and Gini Wijnaldum.
With Wijnaldum now at Paris Saint-Germain, Klopp detailed why he decided to expand the group to a half dozen in the Liverpool first team and why Alexander-Arnold, Robertson and Alisson got the nod.
He said: “We had three captains in Hendo, Milly, Virg and the players voted for another three.
“So that was won by Trent, Robbo and Alisson Becker.
“It was just that from time to time last year with the amount of injuries we had, we had no-one available from the players’ committee out on the pitch.
“So that is why I decided to increase the group to six.”
Liverpool head back to Porto for the Champions League on Tuesday evening as they meet the Portuguese giants for the fifth time since February 2018.
Diogo Jota will be part of the travelling squad, with the Portugal international set to come up against his former club fresh from his goal in Saturday’s 3-3 draw with Brentford.
It’s just over a year since Jota joined in a £43m deal from Wolves and Klopp has been reflecting on a player he believes is perfect for how the Reds want to play in the final third.
“He’s an exceptional player,” Klopp said. “I am really happy we signed him.
“Honestly, he has a strong personality and you cannot know about that before you meet the person, he’s really mature for his young age and he is enjoyable to work with.
“We spoke about it from time to time, it’s not easy to improve us but Diogo definitely did.
“He has scored important goals and he is a player that is made for our style, pretty intense, technical, really fast, good in the air, both feet are really good, so he is an interesting package.
“I am really happy that we saw that and we could realise the transfer, it has helped us a lot.
“The first season was obviously not completely free of any struggles because of the injury he got at Midtjylland, so that was not perfect, but when he was fit he always helped us a lot.”
