Liverpool star James Milner has predicted Brendan Rodgers would have got the Reds going again having struggled to build on their 2013/14 title challenge before his sacking.
“My impression of him is that he’s a very good manager; he was one of the main reasons I signed for Liverpool, in fact,” Milner told The Times.
“It’s a massive club and doesn’t need too much selling but Brendan played a very big part when I made my decision.
“Liverpool’s loss has been Celtic’s gain, but we were lucky enough to bring in Jurgen Klopp after Brendan.
“He’s another top manager, so it’s worked out well for both clubs.
“Brendan did well at Anfield and he came so close to ending that long wait for the title.
“Would he have turned things round if he’d been given more time? I’m sure he would have done.
“You don’t come as close as he did to winning the league without doing something right, but the club chose a different path.”
Meanwhile, Jurgen Klopp has jokingly admitted he’s not sure whether Naby Keita is taking to life at Liverpool – because the midfielder barely speaks.
“He’s a very shy person so he’s not very extroverted on the pitch!” Klopp said.
“He needs to settle a bit – he’s next to Sadio [Mane] all the time.
“Everyone loves Naby, but we don’t know if he loves us, because he doesn’t speak a lot!
“Football wise, you can see the potential is outstanding but you have to give him time.
“Defensively, he has to work on that.
“Tactically he has to improve, so there’s a lot to come.
“But what else, I don’t know.”
Finally, former Everton boss Sam Allardyce has claimed Mohamed Salah decided to go down for a penalty against Crystal Palace when he could have stayed on his feet.
“I’m not having it but it’s like anything else,” said Allardyce. “You can buy a penalty if you feel a contact.
“But for me he could have easily stayed on his feet. But he’s felt the contact and thought: ‘Well, instead of staying up, I’m not scoring here so I’ll go down.'”
Allardyce added: “There’s not enough contact to make him fall over. He falls over but it’s still a penalty because he makes contact and the referee’s given it. So it’s a penalty.”