Liverpool assistant manager Zeljko Buvac will be absent for the remainder of the 2017/18 season after stepping back from his duties due to ‘personal reasons’.
According to numerous reports, however, the Bosnian Serb hasn’t lost his job and could return ahead of next season.
He will miss Liverpool’s crucial Champions League semi-final second leg in Rome, as well as the club’s two remaining Premier League fixtures against Chelsea and Brighton.
It’s a blow to the side ahead of a big week for Jurgen Klopp’s team. The impact of his absence isn’t likely to be known until the season has ended but the unsettling nature of a key figure in Klopp’s backroom staff leaving – and the timing of the decision – certainly won’t go unfelt.
Klopp has referred to Buvac as “the brain,” such is his influence over the German. The pair have worked together in managerial capacities for 17 years in total, starting at Mainz 05 in 2001.
