Jurgen Klopp and Mamadou Sakho
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that he sent defender Mamadou Sakho home from the United States preseason tour early because he repeatedly broke club rules.
The France international returned to the United Kingdom on Tuesday, having been ordered to leave the club’s California training base in Palo Alto by Klopp.
The German boss has cited three reasons as to why he felt it necessary for the centre-back return to Merseyside.
Sakho is to sit out the start of the Premier League season due to an Achilles injury and will continue his rehabilitation work at Melwood, the club’s training ground.
“I have to build a group here, we have to start new here,” Klopp said on Wednesday. “So I thought maybe it made sense for him to fly home to Liverpool and after eight or 10 days when we come back we can talk about it. It’s not that serious.
“He nearly missed the departure of the plane, he missed a session and was late for a meal. We have some rules and we have to respect them. If somebody doesn’t respect it or somebody gives me the feeling he is not respecting it then I have to react that’s all.
“It is private how he reacted. But we had no argument, it wasn’t ‘aghh, you, no…’. I spoke. You cannot argue when only one person is speaking. That’s all.”
Klopp has ruled out hitting Sakho in the wallet for stepping out of line, but he does want to see the 26-year-old’s attitude improve.
“Fine him? I am not interested in the money of the players,” Klopp added. “Actually not really often in my life I’ve had to fine anybody because I want that we learn together to do the thing that is right.
“Always it is the same with every group. I don’t like fining. Sometimes it’s funny, when the fine is bull—-. Come on, pay for it, that’s nice. But mistakes — fining never helps.
“It’s not because they care about money, it’s always yeah in the moment it hurts but after a while not. So I want them to do the things because they want to do it, that’s all.”
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