Jurgen Klopp’s mask slipped again at the weekend when karma tugged at his hamstring as he harangued the fourth official before trying to stitch up Paul Tierney. It’s not the first time.
Football management is a stressful job. Klopp and his contemporaries aren’t performing open heart surgery, or making life or death decisions, but the spotlight and pressure is on them. Which causes them to do or say daft stuff.
Klopp has been at his post for longer than 89 of the 91 other managers in the top four divisions so he’s said and done plenty he might regret – and other stuff he definitely doesn’t. Here are 10 occasions the Liverpool boss came across as a bit of a whopper…
First red card in English football
Late on during Liverpool’s win over Manchester City earlier this season, Mo Salah tangled with Bernardo Silva by the touchline closest to the Anfield dugouts. It was probably a foul; it wasn’t given. Hey ho.
No. Klopp lost his sh*t with the assistant referee, charging towards and screaming at him, before following him back towards the halfway line as the official sought to keep up with play and out of the firing line of the German’s spittle.
Klopp offered no excuses while offering a bit of an excuse: “It was my fault but it was not that it was a boring 0-0 and I stood there and went bonkers. There is no excuse, I don’t want an excuse, it happened and it was obvious as everyone saw it. That he gave me a red card is absolutely OK.”
Somehow, Klopp initially escaped a touchline ban and was issued only a fine by an independent regulatory commission after admitting an improper conduct charge. The FA appealed and Klopp was rightly banished to the stands for one game.
Taking aim at the wrong target
Perhaps it was a rouse to distract Liverpool fans from the 3-0 humping they’d just received at Wolves, but Klopp began his pre-match press conference by attempting to humiliate James Pearce, The Athletic‘s Liverpool reporter.
Klopp waited for Pearce to ask a quite reasonable question before getting stuck in. “It’s very difficult to talk to you if I’m 100 per cent honest. I would prefer not to do that.
“You know why. For all the things you wrote. If somebody else wanted to ask that question then I’ll answer it.”
Harmless, you might think, but Klopp, as he well knew, kicked off a pile-on. It was a calculated attempt to humiliate Pearce. And for what? Because he’d got his facts wrong and picked on the wrong sodding…
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