Quotes from interview with club website (Photo | Reuters)
"It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again." | X/@LFC
"Over the years my role was a pretty dominant one. It was not intentional, but it happened. There were a lot of moments where I wished that I didn’t have to do that again [leave a club] – it is the third time I have to do something like that and I really don’t want that. But in the end I have to because one thing I am really convinced of [is] if you have to make a decision like that, it is better you do it slightly early than slightly too late." | Reuters
"I am fully here – I don’t think anybody realised any difference in the last few months. If [they did] then maybe a positive change because I have to say when I made the decision, as hard as it is, it was a relief as well. It was like, ‘OK, there is a finishing line’ and not for not being here anymore. If I could stay here in that role I would be over the moon, I just can’t. That’s it." | X/@LFC
"I really want to perform on the highest level and we only get disturbed if we let it happen as a club. I really hope that it will not happen, with the team I am sure that they will be fine. With the crowd I am sure they will be fine, but the world out there is bigger, the social media and all these kind of things, but I think it is worth [it] that we do what we always did. We live in the moment, we push each other as much as we can and we go for absolutely everything." | Reuters
"If you look at my career, this career is actually not possible, I would say, because where I am coming from, ending up as the manager of Liverpool FC is a fairy tale and a very difficult thing to plan. Impossible to plan and difficult to reach, but it is only possible if you are very busy and 100,000 per cent committed to everything you do and you dedicate your whole life to it. That’s what I did." | Reuters
"I don’t want to wait until I am too old for having a normal life. I need to at least give it a try at one point to see how it is and will I miss it. As I said, I never really had this before so I need to give it a try and it is the right moment for me and I think it is the right moment for the club because I can’t do the job from next year on anymore as I did it before, and then I am not the right one anymore." | AP
"My coaching, my managing style is based on energy, I usually have enough to give it to a lot of people. And if that’s not there I am not the same. If I am not the same I cannot do it. And that’s what we all – I – have to accept. And I hope you can accept it as well. And then we go, that’s the plan." | AFP
"After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth – and that is the truth. That’s it, pretty much." | X/@LFC