Jurgen Klopp has explained his reasoning for appointing Trent Alexander-Arnold captain for Liverpool’s Champions League game against Midtjylland in December instead of Mohamed Salah.
The Reds fielded a young side for their final group stage game of the 2020/21 competition, and Alexander-Arnold, 22, received the armband for the game despite the departure of Salah – six years his senior – as well.
Dreams to reality © ️ pic.twitter.com/sY8wDJHm6L
– Trent Alexander-Arnold (@TrentAA) December 9, 2020
The Liverpool forward admitted he was “very disappointed” not to be named captain, and Klopp admitted his decision was the result of a slight miscalculation.
“I’ve been a captain for a long time in my career and I’ve always thought ‘what a job it is’ because there aren’t a lot of perks and there’s a lot of work,” Klopp said. (via The Guardian).
“I didn’t feel, or I didn’t feel, the importance of being a captain. Before the game I didn’t know how important it could be to the players and I didn’t know how much of a story it was for Trent.
“The rule here is that we have a committee of players. The committee is made up of Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Virgil van Dijk and Gini Wijnaldum. These are roughly the four captains.
“If they can’t all play, it’s usually the guy who is the longest at the club. And that, as I saw, was Trent. I’m not talking about a young career, but his professional career. based on that, it should have been Divock Origi, so it was my fault.
“Then I told Mo about it. Then I realized it wasn’t working very well, so I clarified it. Obviously, he gave the interview. It is not a problem for me. Obviously he was disappointed. I didn’t do it on purpose, and if I made a mistake it didn’t make Divock Origi captain that day.
