Jürgen: My conversation with Wijnaldum convinced us both

The Reds swooped to sign the 25-year-old from Newcastle United on Friday, recruiting a midfielder who scored 11 goals in 38 Premier League appearances last season.

Klopp has been following the Dutchman’s development since his time at Feyenoord and explained that his versatility – and ability to thrive in different positions – was a major part of the appeal in bringing the club’s new No.5 to Anfield.

Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com in California once the transfer had been completed, the manager’s satisfaction with the deal was obvious. Read on for more.

You have now signed Georginio Wijnaldum. How pleased are you with that deal?

Very! In a transfer period you watch a lot of players and have to think about a lot of things – what you need, who is on the market and what can help the team. If you find a player for a position where you think he could fit really well then that’s a moment when you feel really good. Then you start asking about possibilities and what the player and club think. At the end, after a long period of thinking, in this case it actually went really quickly. I’m really happy about this because each day we can work together helps all of us. Georginio brings some things into the squad – like Sadio [Mane], for example – that we didn’t have before. It doesn’t mean [there is] not quality; it’s a different natural skill and style of play if you want. To involve things like this in the game is really interesting. New players have two things to do – to perform at the highest level, of course, and to push all of the other players. That only works with quality. We haven’t signed one player who on the first day is fourth choice in their position. OK, Alex Manninger is not here for challenging Simon [Mignolet] and Loris [Karius], he’s here for helping and developing them and giving us the opportunity to send the young lads on loan or let Shamal [George] play in the U21s. We thought a lot about these signings and now I’m really happy.

How did it go when you spoke to him and how nice is it when you hear a player’s excitement about coming to the club?

I met him and it was good. He is quite an adult. He was captain of PSV Eindhoven, the Dutch champions. At this young age, being the captain of a team doesn’t happen too often. He’s a real footballer and has a special kind of football smartness. When you speak about football and can hear when you speak to a player that you know about the questions he has, you think ‘OK, he thinks a lot about football’. It’s not important that you think too much but it’s important that you think enough and especially the right things. It was good. We both felt pretty good after the talk. Before, it’s like one piece of the whole cake, but after this talk we were both convinced we wanted to do it.

You were tracking Sadio Mane for four years. So when did Georginio first appear on your radar?

I have known him since he was a youth player at Rotterdam. I like watching players and following their way. Last year I had no opportunity because I had no club, and then he made the transfer to Newcastle. Actually I didn’t know in the first place that he played there. When we played against them, it was like ‘Oh, there he is’. Last year I didn’t watch him too much but I never forgot how well he performed at Eindhoven and as a very young boy in Rotterdam. That was quite impressive. He is really versatile and that’s how it should work. At the end, we should not have a squad with 35 players so to react we need players who can play in different positions and can really perform in different positions. Because all players can play in different positions but it’s not always possible to play to their level. For him, it’s quite easy. He is a midfield player in different positions, especially the centre, but the biggest difference to a lot of others is he can play on the wing too. Together with our other players, for sure he will help us.

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