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Long-time Jurgen Klopp critic Raymond Verheijen has spoken about the former Liverpool boss and successor Arne Slot
Former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp and current Reds head coach Arne Slot
He became infamous among Liverpool supporters on social media as 'The Fitness Egg', a constant critic of Jurgen Klopp's squad conditioning methods during the early days of the German's reign.
Now the shell has been cracked open with Raymond Verheijen claiming he was proven right about the former Reds boss while praising successor Arne Slot.
Verheijen was a former youth player in his native Holland before having to retire aged just 18 due to chronic injury, after which he moved into coaching where he worked with Chelsea, Manchester City and Barcelona along with the national teams of Wales, Holland, Russia and South Korea, the latter when they reached the World Cup semi-final in 2002.
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He had already branded David Moyes "a dinosaur" during the former Everton manager's unhappy stint in charge of Manchester United in 2013 when he repeated his previous criticism of Borussia Dortmund when Klopp's Liverpool squad suffered a spate of injuries in 2017, branding the Reds' training "a mess".
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The long-distance war of words had long been initiated by Verheijen by then, prompting a response from Klopp about Liverpool's hectic festive schedule in 2016 that said: "We play two games in 48 hours, there will be injuries and then some Dutch guy will say things."
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When Liverpool in 2018 reached the Champions League final while finishing fourth in the Premier League - the spark for a period of success under Klopp - Verheijen offered the backhanded compliment of “encouraging to see managers like Jurgen Klopp are not too old to learn from their mistakes in previous seasons".
Verheijen, though, believes his comments should not have been regarded as a negative by the former Liverpool boss.
“Criticism is actually a positive thing because criticism means that you try to identify and correct flaws," he said.
"That is a necessity if you want to develop and improve.
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“I criticised these coaches based on evidence, I always substantiated my criticism with objective, logical arguments and not my subjective opinion.
“I also always said it in advance.
I predicted the mistakes.”
Klopp's replacement Slot has enjoyed a record-breaking start as Liverpool boss with nine wins from 10 games in all competitions.
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And the Dutchman's compatriot Verheijen added: "Slot has already developed himself as one of the best Dutch coaches.
He has a great tactical understanding of the game.
"When he talks about the game, he is always clear because he keeps things simple and to the point.
Also, he has a very football-specific approach which is much appreciated by players."
However, Verheijen - speaking in an exclusive interview with flashscore.com - has warned there could be fitness worries ahead for the Liverpool squad, who are already without Alisson Becker for at least the last month and have been missing Harvey Elliott for the last six weeks.
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“When there is a change in coaching staff, there is a spike in injuries and this spike is significantly bigger if the change in coaching staff also means a change of fitness coach,” he said.
“A lot of fitness coaches aren’t football coaches, so they are thinking about fitness in a non-football or isolated way.
“Fitness coaches all have a different way of training, meaning the players’ bodies have to adapt to a totally new way of training and that is the main reason for those injuries.”
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