The former Borussia Dortmund manager has played down the remarks made by the Red Devils manager and cited that he was “lucky” to have received praise from the fourth official following the Merseyside club’s 1-1 draw against Chelsea.

“I heard things about this before, too. I have no idea [if managers are treated differently]. We all know what we can do. It didn’t look nice, but it was not as bad as it looked. Maybe I was lucky. There are different ways to handle the situation,” Klopp was quoted as saying by the Liverpool Echo.

“It’s emotional game. We all know what we can do. Maybe I was lucky the 4th official said something like that. We struggle, myself, Jose, Arsene Wenger. Sometimes we get a fine, sometimes not. It was worse when I was younger. I have already improved. I’ve no idea why he spoke about me, you’d have to ask him.”

In case you didn’t know…

Jurgen Klopp has been seen getting very emotional and aggressive at times towards the fourth official on the touchline. This behaviour of the German manager has been seen during his Borussia Dortmund days.

In March 2014, Klopp was fined €10,000 for verbally abusing the match official in Dortmund’s Bundesliga tie against Borussia Mönchengladbach. The fourth official of that match, Deniz Aytekin wrote in his match report that the then Dortmund manager’s behaviour was rude on more than one occasion.

However, Klopp had the backing of Dortmund chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke who went on to claim that, “I have to support Jürgen Klopp 100 percent in this case.”

Heart of the matter

After Chelsea’s Diego Costa missed the penalty against Liverpool at Anfield, Klopp was seen getting closer to the fourth official Neil Swarbrick’s face. When Klopp went to apologise for his behaviour, he was told by the man in charge that he like the former Dortmund manager’s passion.

A similar incident took place during United’s goalless draw against Hull and Mourinho was issued a warning by the fourth official who was in charge at Old Trafford. United manager was unhappy with the different treatments for different managers and that is when he suggested few manager sin the Premier League receive preferential treatments, which has been played down by Klopp.

What next

Mourinho could face the FA’s action for his comments made towards the match officials. On the other hand, Klopp would have gained a higher moral ground after refusing to take the discussion further in regards to the statement made by the United manager.

Sportskeeda’s take

Klopp was right not to get involved in a war of words with a rival manager, especially when Liverpool struggled with just one win in nine matches played in all competitions in January.

0 votes