Ibe Feels “Like a New Player” Under Klopp

For some of Liverpool's players, the outcasts under Brendan Rodgers, the arrival of Jürgen Klopp was good news. For the likes of Mamadou Sakho, Alberto Moreno, and Lucas Leiva there has been a quite sudden uptick in their fortunes at the club. Players who once seemed unwanted are now key and playing some of their best football in red.

For others, players who Rodgers had seemed to rate highly, having lost the manager who appeared to believe in them could have come as a blow. Not many, though, were playing especially well to start the season, and for Jordon Ibe at least, things seem to be looking up again under Klopp. After a shaky start, he's begun to find his form, and his hopes are again high for the future.

"With the new manager, everything is fresh," the winger told the club's official website. "I feel like a new player, and it's for me to keep improving and trying to stand out in training. I feel good—the whole team are feeling great and fresh. We've won two games now, so it's still new. We just need to win a few more now and I am sure that mentality and confidence will come."

Rodgers gave Ibe a vote of confidence when he loaned out Lazar Markovic, making Ibe the club's only senior winger. Whether it was the weight of expectation or simply a reflection of Liverpool's entire squad struggling, Ibe struggled to start the season. In his most recent appearances, though, some of the verve and flair he brought to the side last season has again been on display.

A strong outing in the Capital One Cup last week was followed up by a cameo against Chelsea where Ibe's pace against a tired opponent helped to keep Chelsea pinned back and never looking likely to fight their way back into the game. It's that fight that Chelsea lacked that Ibe credits Liverpool's new boss with instilling both in him and in the team as a whole since he arrived.

"It was one of the most important things the manager has said," added the winger, who is expected to start against Rubin Kazan on Thursday. "We need to be a team who can be down 2-0 and know there is still time for us to get a goal. It could be the last 10 minutes, so it's just about having a mentality that is like, ‘it's now up to us to go and get two goals... and then a third one.'

"It was great for the team to come back from 1-0 down because it is difficult to do that and beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It was great."