Norwich City boss David Wagner admits he “wasn’t shocked” by the decision of his close friend Jurgen Klopp to leave Liverpool at the end of the season.
The bombshell news was announced on Friday that Klopp will end a near nine-year stay in the Reds hotseat in the summer.
Liverpool remain in the hunt for four trophies after they dismissed Championship side Norwich 5-2 in their FA Cup fourth round tie on Sunday at an emotional Anfield.
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And Wagner, who is a close friend of Klopp, was afterwards asked about his thoughts on imminent exit of the Liverpool boss.
“I wasn’t shocked,” said the Norwich boss. “To be fair, a lot of people have said a lot of things about his decision, but everything that we have spoken about is super private and that’s why I wouldn’t really like to answer questions about his decision and my thoughts about it. We should respect what he has done. Now I wish him really from the bottom of my heart until the end of the season the very best that he is as successful as he can be with this team.
“I saw him before the game today here in the stadium and probably I will see him afterwards as well. It’s fine to see him because normally I wouldn’t have seen him before the summer – the last time I saw him was last summer. This draw gave us the chance. This is something personally which is quite nice about this game as well.
“Did I see more emotion from him? No. He wanted to win, I wanted to in. We gave ourselves and the teams a goal – and I lost like always!”
Norwich had drawn level when Ben Gibson equalised an opener from Curtis Jones, but a superb second-half strike from Borja Sainz was mere consolation as Diogo Jota, Virgil van Dijk and Ryan Gravenberch all netted after the break.
“It was a deserved win for Liverpool, the better side won,” said Wagner. “I’ve seen my team working very hard and put in a shift and tried to be brave on the ball and play out from the back.
“We scored two wonderful goals and we were competitive. But that we got beaten by a top quality side shouldn’t be surprised and we are out of this competition.
“I said before the game to the lads ‘come on guys, let’s attack this game with freedom, it’s a different competition and nothing that happens this afternoon will influence what happens in the Championship’. I’m absolutely fine with what happened.
“This was a good step for us and now we have to make sure we recover for the Championship.”
Wagner added: “The first goal was frustrating because it was a typical goal we spoke about in the pre-match preparation as well as the third goal, the ball in behind into the half-space.
“We conceded a lot playing the ball out from the back, but that’s down to Liverpool’s quality. There was more pressure and it’s something we can learn from. But to be totally honest we won’t play against a team like this this season.”
