Klopp: I’m Mr Nice Guy when Liverpool stars work hard

Jurgen Klopp: Thrilled to be top

Jurgen Klopp: Ready for return to action on Monday

Jurgen Klopp insists he never demands perfection – but has explained he is “a really nice person” to his players if they work hard for him.

Liverpool return to action after 16 days inactivity when they tackle Leicester at the King Power Stadium on Monday evening.

Unlike the rest of their top-four rivals, the Reds are only in one competition after being knocked out of the EFL Cup and FA Cup within the same week in January.

They are fifth in the Premier League table, one point behind fourth-placed Arsenal, and Klopp hopes that his players can deliver against managerless Leicester on Monday.

“We enjoy the work. I know what they want, they know what I want, so it is very good information,” he said.

“We’ve had some nice moments already and hard moments already and in the hard moments nothing came between us, not in the whole of January. Absolutely nothing.

“I did not say: ‘How can I win if they don’t deliver?’ because I didn’t think it. And they didn’t say they could win if only I said the right things, because they didn’t think it.

“Nobody expects perfection. I don’t expect it from them and they don’t from me. It is pretty simple and being good together is not too difficult. It is all full of respect.

“As long as they work really hard I am a really nice person. Not always in training, but I always respect. I will then decide who will start.

“If they start not working – and that does not mean running, it means concentrating on what you need to play football, listening – then I am not a nice guy actually, but none of the players expect me to let them do what they want.

“They know someone has to make the rules and it is long ago I made them, and now we have to respect them.”