Gini Wijnaldum Says Winning Champions League Has Given Liverpool “Peace of Mind”

Photo credit should read PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images

The Dutchman seems entirely relaxed.

Gini Wijnaldum can be a confounding player at times. You feel like he’s not in the game at all in various fixtures. Then he goes and wins you a Champions League semi-final. He did the same for the Netherlands against Germany this week,

He seems pretty happy with his form and his performances, all things said.

“Winning the Champions League has given us all peace of mind”, The Mirror report the midfielder as saying. “Now we know what it’s like to win the biggest trophy of them all – and we just want to keep going from here and add even more titles.

“But Jurgen Klopp is not putting ­extreme pressure on us to win the Premier League. He does not tell us, ‘Now you must win this or that trophy’. He is very ­relaxed.

“He did not do that ­during the past season, either. His idea is that we get the ­maximum out of every ­individual every single day that we are together. And then we will see where that brings us at the end of the season.”

Wijnaldum’s pride in winning the trophy is obvious. “Just look at the list of world-class players who have not won the ­Champions League during their careers”, he added. “It contains more famous names than you would think – and it tells you that it is really special we have won it with Liverpool.

“With the manager, it is more or less hate and love. I am sure he has the best ­interests at heart with every player in the squad. But ­sometimes you are so involved in a match and the manager is still chasing you.

“Then you just boil over sometimes – and, in my case, I do get angry with him. I still don’t know if what happened against ­Barcelona was his real plan.

“But that night I was so angry and so disappointed that he did not start me.

“Looking back, we can say things worked out all right. We will never know how it might have gone if the ­manager had started me.”

It feels a little bit cheeky to question the manager’s selection choices in a game he won 4-0, but we’ll take it. Just keep delivering in big games, Gini, and you can say whatever you want.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com