Klopp shares hope that Neville ‘can have a bit more time off’

Jurgen Klopp hopes that Gary Neville “can have a bit more time off” during the Premier League’s hiatus.

Klopp joked earlier this month that, “I didn’t learn a lot during lockdown except Gary Neville has an opinion on absolutely everything!”

The pair have clashed previously, most notably over Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius.

Neville offered something of an olive branch by naming Klopp as the current Premier League manager he would most like to have played for.

“I usually don’t watch that kind of stuff,” he told Sky Sports. “Now, in lockdown, I obviously had too much time and I watched a lot and read newspapers.

“I don’t think it’s his fault. If you get asked a lot of questions, you have to give a lot of answers. But I realised it in this time more than ever before!

“Hopefully we can fill the newspapers again in the future with some different stuff, and then he can have a bit more time off! I would wish it for him at least.”

Klopp added that there is no pressure on his Liverpool players to attend group training if they do not feel it is safe to do so, with Chelsea having given N’Golo Kante permission to miss session this week.

“It is the players’ choice and that is clear,” he said.

“I said before the session, ‘You are here on free will. Usually you sign a contract and you have to be in when I tell you, but in this case if you don’t feel safe, you don’t have to be here’.

“There are no restrictions, no punishment, nothing. It’s their own decision and we respect that 100 per cent.”

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