2 weeks ago
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Jurgen Klopp has revealed that he used to hang his players out to dry in front of their teammates in the locker room if they ever aired their frustrations for the public to see on social media.
Klopp left Liverpool in 2024 and recently vowed that he currently has no intention of returning to management, but during his managerial career he did occupy three jobs for significant periods.
While social media wasn't much of a thing during Klopp's spell as Mainz boss between 2001 and 2008, its prominence increased drastically in the 2010s, and thus became an extra issue for him to deal with across his spells at Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool.
Klopp was asked in an appearance on the Diary of a CEO podcast whether he ever had to consider a player's social media usage in his managerial jobs, with Steven Bartlett suggesting that it can say a lot about a player's character if they vent their professional grievances on Instagram for all to see.
"We had situations, with players texting or posting something at night and deleting it, but I still was aware of it," Klopp recalled. "Not that I read it, but people tell me, 'last night, this and that happened'.
"In these situations, what I do, I go in the dressing room and I say [to the player in question], 'last night, this and that has happened. It got deleted. I know what it was, but maybe you want to tell everybody.'
"I don't say, 'how can you write that?' but [I ask them to] tell the whole team what you wanted to stay.
"I don't like to bring people in, but I think that's a deserved punishment for something like that.
"The effect was that nobody ever did it again because nobody wants to be the one in the dressing room sitting there and being the one who has to explain something he did last night.
"I discussed individual problems, if it was ok and important for the team, in front of the team.
"Come on, explain why you did that, why you went out that long, or what happened in that last two hours."
Klopp did not name names, but some Liverpool fans may recall Martin Skrtel being caught up in social media controversy during his final weeks with the club.
Skrtel issued an apology in 2016 after comments were posted from his Instagram account, in which he appeared to agree with another Instagram user who had called Klopp a "d--- head."
Skrtel claimed the comments were posted by one of his friends who was using his account at the time.
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