Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool view on Community Shield after Mikel Arteta corrects reporter
Mikel Arteta was keen to remind everyone about his Community Shield triumphs in Tuesday's pre-match press conference, in stark contrast to Jurgen Klopp’s view of the trophy.
After an encouraging upward trajectory over recent years, there’s a growing sense that Arsenal need to win something to shore up Arteta’s position. His last major success was the 2020 FA Cup.
Unless, of course, the Gunners’ 2020 and 2023 Community Shield wins are counted, something Arteta clearly does. Asked about winning just one piece of silverware ahead of a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Crystal Palace on Wednesday, the former Everton midfielder replied: “[We] won the Charity Shield twice as well, no? So it’s three [trophies].”
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It’s the opposite opinion of that held by Klopp during his reign in Liverpool. The German won every major honour during his nine years in England, and evidently didn’t see the value of the annual curtain raiser.
“Is it a pre-season friendly? Is that how you see it in this country? I need to know that, no-one told me that so far,” Klopp said ahead of his first Community Shield in 2019, which the Reds lost on penalties against Manchester City.
“I don’t know why people play this competition when it means nothing, to be honest, why we [don’t] cancel it then. In Germany I won it five times and nobody mentions it even though we played every year. It’s the Super Cup, you win and nobody cares. Lose it… some people care.
“It has nothing to do with the rest of the season,” he continued. “It is a game that if we only have eight players available, for example, that I would like to try and win it. It’s a final and it’s the first time I realised that nobody sees it like that, to be honest.
“A curtain raiser is unbelievable. We think constantly about the game, we prepare it and then everybody says ‘oh, do they really play?’. That’s not too cool, but it’s like this and we cannot change it, and we try to be as ready as possible. That’s what I would say.
“If you win it, good. Does it have an influence on the season? I don’t think so. If you lose it, not good and has an influence on the season. It’s not allowed.
“But we cannot risk players and we have to see who we can line up with, who will train and who will play. We need to make sure we have a line-up that gives us the opportunity to try and win the game and that’s what we’ll do.”
