Jurgen Klopp lost his temper on a number of occasions as Liverpool manager, but one unlikely player once triggered his anger by speaking up in the dressing room
James Milner of Liverpool FC and Jurgen Klopp Head coach of Liverpool FC look on during the warm up prior to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 leg two match between Real Madrid and Liverpool FC at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on March 15, 2023 in Madrid, Spain.
Jurgen Klopp lost his head with James Milner on one occasion(Image: Getty Images)
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James Milner once endured the wrath of former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp in the dressing room. Milner was unquestionably a model professional during his eight-year spell at Anfield, from 2015 to 2023.
The versatile midfielder filled in anywhere on the pitch and never let his standards drop, winning Liverpool’s yearly pre-season lactate test well into his 30s. Unsurprisingly, that made him one of Klopp’s favourite and most relied-on players, with the German having joined the club just four months after the Englishman.
But there was one rare instance in which Milner joined the list of players scolded by the fiery manager. Milner, now 40 and still playing for Brighton, told the High Performance podcast in 2023 about incurring Klopp’s fury in the dressing room at half-time.
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Milner said: "He was pretty good most of the time, he was open. Maybe not at half time, we had one occasion where he was sharing his thoughts and I was sharing mine."
Recalling Klopp's six-word comment during the back-and-forth, he added: "I remember him smashing his hands down on the table like, 'Will you shut the f*** up?!'
"But Jurgen was brilliant. I had a great relationship with him, off the field as well, he supported our charity (the James Milner Foundation) as well so much."
Milner, who recently overtook Gareth Barry as the Premier League's all-time leading appearance maker, went on to reveal what made Klopp such a great manager before his departure in 2024 to become Red Bull’s Head of Global Soccer.
Liverpool's Jürgen Klopp and James Milner hugging
Milner was a valuable player for Klopp and Liverpool(Image: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
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He continued: "An amazing manager. I always felt like most of the time he was open and even if he didn’t feel like the conversation, he gave you stuff back so you felt like he’d thought about it afterwards. Even if he didn’t tell you that, you’d see it with things he did after and I felt like he was good at taking things on board.
"He’s a leader, he makes the decisions, but if you’ve put something in his head and it’s helped, he was pretty good at listening to things like that, I saw him change a lot in the time I was there."
Milner is even thinking of following in Klopp’s footsteps once he finally hangs up his boots. But he received some valuable advice from his former boss before getting into coaching.
Jurgen Klopp and wife Ulla at the James Milner Foundation charity ball at Events city Trafford
Klopp and wife Ulla at the James Milner Foundation charity ball(Image: Manchester Evening News/ Andy Lambert)
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"I've done my badges and things like that," Milner told talkSPORT. "Some days I think it's a really good idea, other days you see people getting a new contract and managers getting sacked six weeks later. That doesn't look too appealing.
"You see the stress those guys have and the amount of media they have to do and the responsibility they take on, it is a very difficult job which, again, it does appeal to me because it is so difficult. It is something you think, 'I could do that, I'll show you.'
"Jurgen Klopp always said to me that whenever you finish, it's important you have a rest when you've been 100 miles an hour for as long as I have. So I think whenever that happens, that will be the first port of call and we'll see where we go from there."
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