Jürgen Klopp Reflects on Football in a Time of Coronavirus

It’s been nearly a year since a global pandemic changed not just how football is played but how life is lived for everybody. For Liverpool, the club and players and fans, it’s been nearly a year since the stadiums were full and things were anything like normal.

It can be easy to forget, in the moment. Even for Jürgen Klopp, who says that for all that things have changed this past year, day to day he doesn’t perhaps give it very much thought, trying instead to focus on the present and his job as manager.

“I don’t think too often about it because as long as the situation is not changing it makes no sense really to think about,” he told DAZN Brazil this week. “But yes it’s a massive difference. Could I have imagined one year ago that my life would change like this, that our lives would change like this?”

For a brief moment in the autumn, with fans starting to return to stadiums and the infection numbers dropping and multiple vaccines announced, it appeared as though perhaps things would be returning to normal.

Following that brief hope, a step back. Rising case numbers, stadiums closed again, new lockdowns. Still, this situation won’t last forever. Northing does, good or bad. For the time being, though, just as it is for the whole the world, Liverpool’s players and staff and remain in the midst of a tough moment.

“It’s really tough for us and for all of us as well,” Klopp added. “Work helps, when you can go to work and do the stuff you love. That helps obviously.

“But family is at home and with all these things they have been months in lockdown and they cannot have their normal life as well. We usually to get recharged, we go home with family and friends that we love, and we all of us don’t have that now really so it’s tough.”