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If Liverpool were as resourceful on the field as Jurgen Klopp in making excuses, their defense of the Premier League title would probably not be finished in February.
After another loss at Anfield, this time a 4-1 humiliation by Manchester City of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp jumped to the defense of goalkeeper Alisson Becker after two horrific errors that gave City two goals when the game was delicately balanced at 1-1.
“On the second goal, I just mishit the ball,” Klopp said. ‘There is no real reason, maybe his feet were cold. It sounds fun but it could be. But it is still an opportunity to stick it in the stands. Ali has saved our lives many times, today he made two mistakes. ‘
Klopp has never shied away from offering a non-conformist excuse when things don’t work out for Liverpool and this season, with his title defense nearly complete in February, a few have been offered. Sportsmail recounts the best of Klopp’s time as Liverpool manager.
MAN CITY’S ‘TWO WEEK REST’
In preparation for Sunday’s Anfield game, Klopp and Guardiola clashed over City’s match schedule, particularly games over the Christmas period.
City’s December 28 match against Everton was canceled that day due to a series of positive tests that had been returned to the team.
Lamenting Liverpool’s lack of rest, Klopp pointed to City’s schedule and said: “I think City had a two-week break for Covid reasons.”
Those statements upset Guardiola, who responded by saying: ‘Jurgen has to look at the calendar again.
“We had Covid and we played with 14 players at Stamford Bridge, but maybe I’m wrong and it wasn’t two weeks, it was three or four weeks. When I see Jurgen I’ll tell him: how many weeks or days were we free?
“He knows it’s not true,” Guardiola said. “Nobody in the Premier League has had two weeks off.”
MANCHESTER UNITED SANCTIONS RECORD
When Liverpool lost 1-0 to Southampton at St Mary’s in January, Klopp was frustrated by the decision not to award a penalty for a foul on Sadio Mane.
Looking ahead to Liverpool’s next game against United, Klopp said: ‘I heard now that Manchester United had more penalties in two years than I have in five and a half years. I have no idea if it’s my fault or how it can happen.
Klopp was narrowly wrong. At the time he made the claim, Liverpool had received 30 penalties in 199 Premier League matches overseen by the German since he took office in October 2015.
United, led by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, had won 27 in their 75 games since he first arrived as interim manager in December 2018.
BT SPORT INJURY AND MATERIAL STACKING BLAME
Earlier this season, Klopp was furious that Liverpool were forced to play a Champions League match on Wednesday night followed by a Premier League match early Saturday.
In this case, Liverpool drew 1-1 with Brighton, with Pascal Gross calling with an injury time penalty, after a 2-0 midweek loss to Atalanta.
James Milner left at Amex with a hamstring injury and when asked by BT Sport’s Des Kelly about the extent of the problem, Klopp said sarcastically, “Congratulations.”
“Not me personally,” Kelly replied.
“Well, you work for them,” Klopp told Kelly. Ask Chris Wilder how we can work on that. I don’t know how often I have to say it, but you pick the games at 12:30. Between now and December there is a Wednesday, Saturday more. These are hard times. I just say it like it is. Wednesday through Saturday at 12:30 is really dangerous. ‘
WILDER TARGETED MORE THAN FIVE SUBS ROWS
Klopp’s reference to the Sheffield United manager alluded to their dispute over pressure for five substitutes to be available for teams during the 2020-21 campaign. Klopp felt that the Premier League should follow the lead of the other major European leagues and allow five substitutes due to the tight match schedule that sees teams catch up after the forced delay of Covid-19 last year.
Wilder was one of the managers who opposed the idea, saying he favored the bigger clubs and said that Klopp was a world-class manager and a world-class politician, who cares about Liverpool. That is all that matters to him.
Klopp soon responded. In the same spiel to BT, he said: ‘Chris Wilder or whoever constantly says I’m selfish. I think all the things he said show that he is selfish.
“I was in a similar situation when I was working in Mainz and it was all about staying in the league, but they have three substitutes and one point, if I’m right.”
THE MUDDY TONE OF AJAX
Much to the bewilderment of his rival and Rio Ferdinand at BT Sport, Klopp said that Ajax’s muddy terrain had held them back in a 1-0 win over the Dutch giants in the Champions League earlier this season.
An own goal in the first half by Nicolas Tagliafico gave Liverpool an impressive three points away from home, but Klopp still found fault with what he saw that night.
“The field was really tough, it was deep, a little muddy,” Klopp said. “You may not be able to see it from the outside, but it was because both teams seemed really exhausted pretty soon.”
He added in another interview with Ziggo Sport: ‘Surprisingly, the field was not good. I thought that a team that plays soccer would have a good field ”.
Ajax boss Erik ten Hag dismissed the claims.
Does Klopp say the launch was bad? I don’t think the playing field was bad, no. Hopefully we have a better pitch at Anfield then, ‘he said.
Ferdinand disagreed with Klopp, saying: “Obviously, it’s strange to hear that the field was a bit soggy and stuff, which was draining the energy in the legs, but they got over it and that’s all you need to ask of them.”
WEST BROM DRY TONE
A few years ago, Klopp was visibly furious when Liverpool gave up a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with West Brom in the 2017-18 campaign.
However, his anger was not against his players. It was on the Baggies for refusing to water the court, calling their comeback futile, as it left them eight points from safety with three games to go by the end of the season.
“I don’t think that point helps West Brom massively, it’s a complete loss of points. They don’t need it, we would have needed it, ” Klopp said. ‘They are happy now, we are not happy. We stay in the league, they don’t stay in the league, it’s a strange situation. ‘
But he turned on Sky Sports reporter Patrick Davidson in his immediate post-game interview when the Liverpool boss reportedly helped him water the pitch.
“Obviously, he showed that he never played football,” Klopp said. ‘It makes a big difference. If the field is dry, you can pass the ball not really through three or four yards. That’s for all the teams in the world, if they play football.
“If you do it like West Brom, the ball is constantly in the air and you don’t need a wet field. But that’s the way it is and we have to deal with it.
And they can do it next year, playing dry-field football in the Championship. This is how it is and we have to deal with it. ‘
WIND
Don’t forget the wind! Klopp has often blamed the wind for Liverpool’s struggles since taking over as Anfield manager in October 2015.
The most notable example was in 2017 when Southampton beat Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield in the second leg of the League Cup semi-finals to reach the final.
“The first half was difficult, the wind was really strange, it was difficult to handle,” he told reporters. ‘You saw a ball or two when the ball stopped at a time when nobody knew about it. That was difficult for a team that plays soccer.
“I said a few times when I came here about the wind and everyone was laughing, but today it was really difficult, really difficult to play football in this wind.”
SNOW
In January 2019, Liverpool drew 1-1 with Leicester at Anfield and Klopp was again frustrated by the weather conditions. This time, it was the snow to blame.
“You saw the ball didn’t really roll,” Klopp said. “If you have the ball 70 to 80 percent of the time, life becomes really uncomfortable. The only problem is if he stays on the field and that was really the case.
Liverpool took the lead through an early attack from Sadio Mane, but Harry Maguire called for the Foxes.
BROADCASTERS ‘STOPPED ADDED TIME’
The VAR was the bone of contention for Klopp even when it was being tested. In 2018, the technology was used for Liverpool’s FA Cup match against West Brom, which Liverpool lost 2-1.
His dismay this time came from the amount of injury time added at the end of the first half; I believed it was meant to be much longer than the four minutes that were given.
“What I heard was that the actual overtime in the first half should have been 10 minutes,” Klopp said. ‘It was only four minutes. I heard the television say it was no more than four minutes.
‘Of course that is not possible, the time of the match cannot be reduced because there is something else to convey. I don’t know what happened next, maybe the news or something. It was 10 minutes, so you have to play 10 more minutes. You can’t say, “Now it’s a little too long.”
BT Sport said it had no influence on the amount of injury time awarded during matches.
THE REFEREE INTERRUPTS THE MOMENT
Liverpool drew 1-1 at West Ham in February 2019 and Klopp felt the referee’s decisions disrupted the flow of his team’s play.
Sadio Mane had put Liverpool ahead with a goal in the first half that saw James Milner contribute from an offside position on the set-up play.
Klopp felt referee Kevin Friend overcompensated with second-half decisions to make up for the mistake.
“He knew it (Liverpool’s goal was offside) for sure at half-time,” Klopp said. So you saw a lot of strange situations. They weren’t decisive, but simply beat breakers. That obviously didn’t help us.
“If I made a mistake in the first half, I don’t want to drive the gap further as a human being.”
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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