LIVERPOOL -- Jurgen Klopp says it was a "strange decision" for Leicester City to sack Claudio Ranieri -- comparing it to other major world events in recent months -- though he is not expecting anything different when his Liverpool side face them on Monday.
Ranieri was dismissed by Leicester on Thursday night, just nine months after guiding the club to their first Premier League title win.
Liverpool travel to the King Power Stadium on Monday, with assistant manager Craig Shakespeare and first-team coach Mike Stowell taking charge of Leicester until a new manager is appointed.
"I heard about it yesterday night," Klopp said at a news conference of Ranieri's sacking. "Am I surprised that things like this can happen? No. It's not only football, eh? For me, there's been a few strange decisions in 16-17: Brexit, [Donald] Trump, Ranieri...
"Do I have to understand it all the time? No. Obviously not as it happens still. I have no idea why Leicester did this. Everybody can see their situation in the league, everyone can see their situation in the Champions League, but they are not in it.
"He is a really special person in this business, a really nice guy, I have to say. I met him before when he visited me at [Borussia] Dortmund and we had a nice talk there. He's wonderful. I don't know enough though so maybe you should go to Leicester's press conference and ask them why they did it."
Klopp added: "After this press conference, we will have our opposition meeting, so we will see how our scouts react on this. [First] game without Ranieri, I don't think they will change it, I am not sure. Probably the two assistants will [take charge], so that's not a change, it's only a little different situation.
"Of course, probably the players have to show a few things and they want to -- and our job is to not let them, that's difficult enough. Things I can't have influence on, I cannot really think about. If we play our best, we will be difficult to play against whoever, and that's the thing we think about."
Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren, meanwhile, is set to return to training but remains a doubt for Monday's game.
Lovren has been forced to miss Liverpool's last two matches -- against Hull City and Tottenham Hotspur -- due to a problem with his knee, with the centre-back recently travelling to Germany for consultation on the issue.
Daniel Sturridge is on his way back from a virus that forced him to return home early from Liverpool's midseason trip to La Manga, Spain.
"Unfortunately not all of the players could join us [in La Manga]," Klopp said. "Daniel tried to but unfortunately we had to send him home because of a virus infection. He will probably come in today for the first time, [he needed] a few days.
"Dejan Lovren could not join us, but he trained today, he was running today -- it was possible and he felt good. He could now do a few more steps in the right direction so that's good."
On Lovren, Klopp added: "If it would have been completely simple it would not have taken this long time. Before the Chelsea game he was struggling a little bit, but then when he was warming up it was getting better so he could play -- and played really well.
"After the game, the pain was too big for him, so we gave him a little rest with treatment and made some diagnosis. In the end we could not find the 100 percent clue, so we sent him to a specialist who found a few things, not directly in the knee where he had the pain.
"The knee is fine, but the pain was there. They sorted these things around [it] and I spoke to him five minutes ago and he [told me] he felt really well when he was running outside and so now he should be able to train tomorrow. He will be very, very close -- tight -- for the Leicester game, but having him back in training is of course good for us."
Klopp revealed Georginio Wijnaldum suffered a problem with his calf in training this week, but added that he should be ready for the Leicester encounter.
"He has had some little problems in training this week, he got a real knock on his calf but it should be no problem," Klopp said. "Yesterday he could run and today he could train, so that's important."