Jurgen Klopp has moved to diffuse his row with referee Paul Tierney during Liverpool’s win over Tottenham last weekend.
Klopp and Tierney clashed after Diogo Jota’s winning goal against Spurs at Anfield, with the Reds boss shown a yellow card after celebrating in the direction of fourth official John Brooks.
Later, Klopp appeared to accuse the official, with whom he had clashed previously, of having an agenda against his side, and claimed that what Tierney had said to him when showing him the yellow card was “not OK”.
I Didn’t Say Anything Wrong
At a press conference ahead of Liverpool’s game with Fulham on Wednesday night, Klopp said: “The whole situation should not have happened at all.
“It was out of emotion, out of anger, which is never a good leader for the things you do.
“That’s why I celebrated the way I celebrated. There was a situation with a foul on Mo [Salah], which was directly in front of my eyes.
“Then another free-kick and then the [Richarlison] goal. Then a minute later we score, which is usually a moment you should just be happy, but unfortunately I was still kind of angry, which led to the way I celebrated.
“I didn’t say anything wrong. Then I was shouting, ‘without you, without you’ which doesn’t really make a lot of sense.
“I couldn’t get close to the fourth official, but I already turned in his direction which was not right. Then I felt my muscle!
“Paul Tierney came over to me and I didn’t expect a red card at all. I expected a yellow card.
“He said to me ‘for me it’s a red card, but because of him [John Brooks] it’s yellow’. That’s what I understood.
“He showed me a yellow card and smiled in my face. That’s it. I was like ‘red card for what?!’ and stood there.”
Addressing his post-match comments, Jurgen Klopp went on to say: “I tried to calm down, went into all the interviews and then I said what I said.
It Was Not Intentional
“The things that were made of it, I didn’t say. I said that what he [Tierney] said to me was ‘not OK’, and actually I thought it was not OK because it was not a red card in my view.
“I understand that I opened the box. It was not intentional, but I opened it.
“The rest of the things I said, how I felt about Paul Tierney whistling our games.
“I know, I am very sure, that he is not doing it intentionally, but we have a history and I cannot deny that.
“I am not a resentful person, not at all.
“Had to get over so many things in my life, and I get over them, but obviously these kind of things that happened in decisive games for us in the past, they happened.
“Of course they didn’t happen intentionally, but they are still there. That’s a feeling and nothing else.
“Though I said what I said, and obviously the refs were really angry about that. I heard that I was lying. I never did.
“And I said a couple of things I shouldn’t have said but lying was not involved.”
Accusations
Jurgen Klopp is likely to face an improper conduct charge from the Football Association, having already served a touchline ban following a red card against Manchester City earlier this season.
On Sunday evening, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) issued a statement refuting his accusations against Tierney and defending the referee’s actions during the Tottenham game, and the FA is likely to take a dim view of a manager appearing to imply bias from an official towards any team.
On that, Klopp added: “It’s not in my hands. We won a game 4-3 in a spectacular manner, and the only headlines we have are what I created, and that’s not necessary.
You May Also Like To Read: Jose Mourinho Rejected Chelsea’s Approach Over Potential Return
“I regret that. I have no clue what happens now. We expect a reaction because everybody tells us something will come, but we didn’t hear anything yet from the FA or from the refs.”
