A frustrated Jurgen Klopp revealed the fourth official he faced after the late Liverpool winner saved him from a red card on Sunday after being fined by the FA for making inappropriate comments to referee Paul Tierney after the match.
Dissatisfied with Tierney’s performance in Liverpool’s dramatic 4-3 victory over Spurs at Anfield, Klopp said his team has “history” with his team.
On Tuesday, Klopp said he would consider apologizing to John Brooks for his behavior in the final seconds of the seven-goal thriller against Tottenham Hotspur and would accept any possible punishment from the Football Association.
Klopp cleared up a chain of events that angered the PGMOL refereeing board and earned him general condemnation of the game.
But things could have been worse for the emotional German if referee Paul Tierney had shown him a red card and not heeded the advice of Brooks, who offered a yellow instead.
“Paul Tierney came up and said, ‘That’s a red card for me, but because of him [pointing at Brooks] it’s yellow” and he shows me the yellow one and smiles in my face, that’s all. To be honest, I did not expect a red card at all, it was not good, I expected a yellow card.
“I didn’t say anything bad [to Brooks]I was screaming, “Without you, without you,” which didn’t make any sense.
“It was not cool, but I just celebrated in his direction. I just didn’t think it was that bad, but we all know that sometimes things that don’t look so bad in your head are different from what the outside world sees. If things go badly, I will definitely consider reporting it.”
Klopp also dropped his post-match accusation that Tierney had plans against Liverpool following a series of controversial incidents in games managed by a Manchester official over the past two seasons.
PGMOL has strongly denied these claims and a remorseful Klopp was in full relegation mode yesterday ahead of today’s (Wednesday) home game against Fulham.
‘I know him [Tierney] doesn’t do it on purpose, but we have a history, you can’t deny it,” he added. “I’m not a vindictive person at all, but things like this have happened in decisive games in the past. They didn’t happen on purpose, but they’re still there.
“The judges are very outraged by what I said. I didn’t have to say a few things, but there were no lies.”
He blames his red haze on the emotion of the game, which saw Liverpool lead 3-0 winners Hoth just 90 seconds after Tottenham’s third equaliser.
“This whole situation should not have happened from the beginning,” he said. “Then it was because of emotions and anger. That’s why I celebrated like that. We won the game spectacularly 4-3 and the headlines were all mine and I’m very sorry about that. It is not necessary and not the way it should be.”
Klopp faces a two-game ban after serving a one-game ban and being warned of his future behavior after receiving a red card for berating an assistant referee during a Manchester City game in October.
“With all these things, I could count on a penalty,” he said. “The judges think that I am questioning their honesty, which I am not doing now, sitting quietly. We’ll have to wait and see what they do [the FA] come back with me.”
Source: I News
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