Jurgen Klopp is said to be "furious" with the former Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamann as Liverpool's troubled season rumbles on.
The Reds currently sit 10th in the table during a tumultuous campaign which has seen a severe drop-off in both energy and performance levels following on from last season's highs.
Players have frequently looked sluggish and have found it difficult to impose themselves on matches, with the Reds having suffered three defeats in the Premier League already in 2023, as well as exiting the FA Cup at Brighton.
One, largely derided, theory for their underperformance emerged earlier in the campaign after assistant boss Pep Lijnders released a book about the rigours of the 2021-22 season when the Reds competed in 63 matches and came closer to winning a quadruple of trophies than any club has before, eventually ending up with the League Cup and FA Cup.
Hamann was critical of the decision to bring out the book, and tweeted in September: "The alarm bells should have been ringing for Liverpool fans when the current assistant manager wrote a book while still employed by the club. How he was allowed to do it I’m not too sure."
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He followed that up with another tweet in January, asking: "The only question is whether the club benefited from it and the simple answer is no. His job is not to educate other coaches while he’s getting paid by Liverpool."
Hamann has been critical of Lijnders (@RTEsoccer/Twitter)A report from The Athletic states that Klopp is fuming with the views of his compatriot, who played for the Reds 280 times between 1999 and 2006.
Klopp took aim at Hamann back in October when, at a press conference prior to a Champions League trip to Rangers, it was put to him that Hamann had stated the Reds needed a new spark.
After asking who had said that, Klopp sarcastically replied: "Oh great, he’s a fantastic source, well respected everywhere.
"That [playing for Liverpool] doesn’t give you the right to say what you want especially when you have no idea.
Klopp remains loyal to Lijnders and the rest of his staff (Getty Images)"I actually think Didi Hamann doesn’t deserve that you use his phrase to ask me a question.
"Do me a favour and ask your own question. Try to ask a question without the word spark, that’s the challenge now."
Klopp is also said to have been angered by recent reports suggesting that his fitness coach Andreas Kornmayer was "hard to work with", with the Reds boss taking responsibility for his staff and seeking to protect them from criticism.
Hamann had criticised Klopp and Liverpool prior to that October press conference, telling talkSPORT: "At some stage, I think we will have that discussion about the manager and I’m not sure how far we are off that.
"He said that he still feels that he’s the right man to do it, but I see little things like Jordan Henderson midweek seeing his number going up and reluctantly taking his armband off and coming off, shaking his head.
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"This is something that we haven’t seen at Liverpool for five years. Maybe these are little signs that people have little problems with the team or even the manager.
"The dynamics at Liverpool are no different to anywhere else and if the results aren’t there then the manager will come under pressure."
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