Jurgen Klopp hoping to keep emotional goodbye as ‘normal’ as possible

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admits after the “most intense week of my life” he may delegate team meeting duties to captain Virgil van Dijk.

The 56-year-old is in the final official two days of his tenure at the club after announcing in January his decision to leave his contract early after eight and a half years.

He has spent most of the last week saying his goodbyes to staff and associates – the players gave him their send-off at a barbecue on Thursday – and readily accepts he may not be in the right frame of mind to deliver the final preparations for Sunday’s visit of Wolves, which will be the most emotional of farewells at Anfield.

“This is a massive challenge now to sit here and pretend… I have no clue how the team meeting will be,” he said.

“The documentary guys (behind-the-scenes cameras have been following Klopp and the team for several months) asked me if they can have the last team meeting, which nobody ever had.

“I said no because I have no idea how that will be. Maybe Virg is doing it because somebody has to do it who is really on fire.

“Can I be on fire? Probably yes, I think so, but I don’t know in the moment. But it will be really strange.”

Anfield will be a sea of emotion on Sunday as fans say goodbye to their beloved manager but Klopp wants, perhaps unrealistically, for the focus to be on the football.

The time to revel in his achievements will come at the final whistle when Klopp will be honoured by players and staff and is expected to give his final address to Anfield.

“I want us to play top football. People come for that but you need an atmosphere for that,” he added.

“During the game it would be cool if that would be not a goodbye atmosphere but a really good football atmosphere, that would be cool.

“This is the last game of the season and after that is a holiday – that’s what I had for the last 24 years – so it’s business as usual…knowing that everything around the game and during the game will be completely different.

“We have to prepare as good and as normal as possible. I think I was never the part to disturb the game but probably in this moment I am the one and I’m really sorry for that, I would love not to be that.

“But standing there and pretending that it’s a completely normal game, nobody would believe me if I say that.

“It’s a challenge for different reasons this time and I hope we can just all together put a really good performance on the pitch – I think we would all deserve that.

“It’s much easier to celebrate afterwards if you saw a good game before. I cannot guarantee that now but I will try as hard as I can.”

On what he will feel as he leaves Anfield for the last time Klopp said: “Saying goodbye I don’t think is ever nice but saying goodbye without feeling sad or feeling hurt, that would mean that the time you spent together was not right and not great.

“And we had a great time, so it was always clear it will be tough and I know it will be tough.”