What do Liverpool and PepsiCo have in common? They're both the biggest bottlers in the world.
“Build him a statue, build him a shrine, he’s better than Fergie, he’s better than Pep, he doesn't spend money (despite spending £850m), Klopp’s Liverpool team is the greatest team in history, the quad is on”. We’ve heard it all from Liverpool fans during Klopp’s era but what has Jurgen Klopp actually achieved in his time in England? Where does he rank among the all-time greats and were Liverpool fans really content with not winning trophies as frequently as the great teams did?
I take a dive into what has gone on since my last blog and answer football’s most burning question, “how significant has Jurgen Klopp’s reign been in England?”
Klopp pushing football to be a non-contact sport
Klopp will be happy when football is a non-contact sport. Most of us fell in love with football because of the aggression that it involved and the flying tackles, unfortunately hard tackling is a dying art because of people like Jurgen Klopp who kept on complaining about tackles. There are plenty of instances over his tenure where he has excessively and incessantly complained about straight forward challenges none more so than when Robert Sanchez wasn’t given a red card for a tackle against Luis Diaz in 2022. Klopp would have only been happy when he turned football into a non-contact sport because he thought that it would be the best way for Liverpool to win a title.
At the beginning of the 2022/23 season, the Premier League's refereeing chief, Mike Riley, said there would be a move towards "letting the game flow" and not penalising "trivial offences. However, just 2 games into that season, Jurgen Klopp hit out at the rule changes saying that he was unhappy with a number of Burnley challenges he deemed overly physical during the game at Anfield and hit out at the rule changes which he said felt "like we're going backwards". He also mentioned that the changes were more suited to “wrestling.”
Football is a contact sport, everybody playing the sport knows this. Jurgen Klopp’s constant moaning about the physicality aspect killed the game that we love, taking away the part of the game that people love. We’ve seen over the years that his teams can be brittle when it comes to physical challenges and instead of complaining about it, he should have been doing more work on making them stronger. Why did the game that we love change because of one man?
That November before the Merseyside derby he said that the fixture is "too much" for him, and said that the fixture is too physical:
"It's always a completely different game, so I really very often don't like the intensity of the game, it's too much for me," he told Sky Sports. "I like physical football, I have no problem with that, we play that, other teams play that, but in that game very often people put too much in. I can't say it's my favourite game of the year to be honest, because of that.
If you couldn’t handle the physicality of football then maybe football wasn’t the right sport for you.
Liverpool Spending
Despite Liverpool spending £850m during his time in England, Klopp still complained about how Liverpool weren’t spending money compared to their rivals. Liverpool have a self-sustaining business model where the owners don’t put money into the club and the club relies on profit and selling players to fund their spending. He has spent massive amounts of money as Liverpool have done well in player sales so he couldn’t keep using the excuse that Liverpool weren’t spending money like City and Chelsea were. The club’s model is similar to Arsenal and they managed to back their manager with funds over that time. The money is there and if his club decided not to spend it then he must take it up with the owners, we grew tired of hearing him plead poverty about how Liverpool couldn’t spend money.
Liverpool were even wiling to break records and spend £110m on Moises Caicedo and then £50m on Romeo Lavia but both players turned him down despite having bids accepted as they saw Chelsea as the better project.
When Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003, we had seen unprecedented levels of spending. Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t complain about it despite Chelsea winning the title in 2005 and 2006. Instead, he rose to the challenge and built a team that overtook Chelsea as United won the next 3 titles. Klopp is a lot like Wenger was back then. They didn’t concentrate on themselves, instead they complained about what other clubs were doing. If they couldn’t overcome a challenge, then maybe they shouldn’t have been managing clubs at the top end of the table.
The media will lead you to believe that Klopp was working miracles by challenging Pep season after season (despite only winning 1 title and coming in 2nd place twice). With the money they’ve spent under Klopp, Liverpool should have won a lot more league titles than they did but the perception from the club and their fans is that challenging for the title is some sort of miracle and they always seemed to be happy with where they were.
You can't compare City's and Liverpool's spending. At Manchester City they demand trophies. While at Liverpool a manager can win 1 league title in 10 seasons and their fans will be ecstatic.
Jose Mourinho won 5 European Trophies with 4 different clubs despite not having the best conditions. That’s what you call European pedigree. European pedigree is not getting to finals that you kept on losing.
Opposition supporters couldn’t have been happier with Klopp. They were very happy when he extended his contract and sad to see him leave because he had a track record of not winning many major trophies.
YNWA
I’ve spoken at length about how YNWA is a myth and is only reserved for certain people, but I must admit that I still found it funny when Liverpool fans turned on Trent Alexander-Arnold after his performance against Manchester United in January 2025. Their club decided not to extend his contract which should have been done years ago but he is paying the price for their failings. So many Liverpool fans that I’ve seen both in person and online said that it’s time for him to go. This despite them saying things like “he is better than David Beckham” to us over the years.
I wonder if that’s the reason they are upset with him or if it’s because he switched off in the 2022 Champions League final and let Vinicius Jnr. score the winner and lose the match for his team.
Altercations with opposition managers
I’ve spoken about Klopp’s touchline feud with Frank Lampard where Frank put him in his place. He had a touchline altercation with Arteta in 2021 and the managers had to be separated, it’s worth noting that Klopp seemed to fear Arteta. While he didn’t look as scared as he did when Frank Lampard had a go at him for “giving it the big un,” he still looked petrified.
Insulting Africa
Klopp had the cheek to insult Africans by calling the Afcon a ‘little competition.’ When he was challenged by an African Journalist that called on him to apologise to the people of Africa for the insult, he became defensive and said the following:
“I didn’t mean it like that, come on… so I was not even close to it being the idea in my mind that I want to talk about the Afcon as a ‘little tournament’ or about the continent of Africa as a ‘little continent’, not at all.
“What I meant was, if you watch the full press conference, then you might have understood it the right way if you wanted to because I said there are no international breaks until March now.”
“I said, ‘oh, there’s a little tournament in January’ and I didn’t mean a ‘little’ tournament, I was just saying it’s still a tournament, it’s ironic,” he continued.
“It’s still a tournament, a big one. We [will] lose our best players to that tournament.
“I am not a native speaker but if you want to understand me wrong, you can do that all the time.
“I really don’t… I know that I would never think like this. I don’t understand why you thought this to be honest, but that’s really not okay as I would never do that.
“But that is it now. It was not my intention, but you made something [more] of it, so that is not so cool to be 100 percent honest.”
An African journalist is defending Africa and Klopp, despite saying in his own words that Afcon is a “little tournament” decided to the put the blame on the journalist for misrepresenting his words. It’s amazing that instead of taking the time to apologise, he tried to blame the journalist in question. As mentioned in previous blogs, Klopp is the darling of English and world Media and instead of people in the media coming out to defend their colleague, they gave Klopp a free ride (again) and let him get away with it.
Arrogance & Hypocrisy
Liverpool were lucky to draw against Spurs in December 2021, while Liverpool enjoyed more of the possession, Spurs had the better chances. Andy Robertson was correctly sent off in the game as Liverpool finished with 10 men. After the game, Klopp went into the face of referee Paul Tierney and said “I have no problems with any referees – only you.” The level of disrespect shown to a referee by any other manager would have brought on a multiple game ban. It went further in the post match interview by saying that you need an “objective ref” thereby implying that the referee wasn’t impartial. I can’t imagine the punishment Jose Mourinho would have gotten had he done the same thing, yet Klopp didn’t even get a slap on the wrist from the FA. The amount of leniency he is allowed is something that we’ve never seen from any manager in Premier League history. I’ll speak more about this later.
In a title deciding game in May 2022, Liverpool dropped 2 vital points against Spurs to derail their title bid. The Spurs manager at the time, Antonio Conte, decided to take a defensive approach to the game as he is entitled to. This led to Spurs only having 35% of possession in the game which led to Klopp making these remarks:
"Sorry, I am the wrong person for that," he said. "I don't like this kind of football. "But that's my personal problem. I think they're world class and I think they should do more for the game. "A game against Liverpool and 36 or 30 per cent possession...
"But that's my problem. I cannot coach it, so that's why I cannot do it.
"So yes, world class players, block all the balls. It's really difficult.
"Atletico Madrid are also doing it. Fine they won whatever, fine. Absolutely fine. It's just I can't. But yes, I respect everything they do but it's not me."
Klopp effectively criticising an opponent for refusing to tactically enable his team is a bit silly.
Social media was quick to point out Klopp’s hypocrisy as Liverpool had done the exact same thing when the two teams had met in the 2019 Champions League Final. Liverpool took an early lead from a dubious penalty and then proceeded to stifle their opponents and the contest as a spectacle. Liverpool finished that game with 35% possession. So according to Klopp, he cannot coach that type of football but when Liverpool parked the bus after being awarded a dodgy penalty to win the Champions League final it was Ironically, the most boring UCL final wasn’t played by Mourinho or Simeone who unfairly get that tag a lot. It was the media darling, Jurgen Klopp.
Teams should have rather contacted Klopp before each game and asked him how he wanted them to play. Klopp wanted his opponents to have average quality players & he wanted them to play with the ball, build from the back and therefore play right into his team’s strengths. A counter pressing dream.
Thankfully, Antonio Conte hit back saying that Klopp was looking for an "excuse or an alibi."
In one of Liverpool’s opening day fixtures with Fulham, Klopp even complained about the pitch being too dry.
As mentioned in previous blogs, Klopp is the media darling so receives very little criticism.
Other managers also started to take notice. After City beat Newcastle 5-0, Guardiola said “"Everyone in this country supports Liverpool, the media and everyone... Our destiny is in our hands, this is important."
Thomas Tuchel went further by branding Klopp "the master of being the underdog" as he praised his compatriot for fostering a countrywide "sympathy" for Liverpool.
Asked where those sympathies come from, Tuchel said: "You know Klopp is the master of being the underdog.
"He can talk you into being the underdog against Villareal and against Benfica, and it's a miracle, miracle how they even draw against them.
"He can talk you into it and he does it all the time, he does it a lot of times. That's part of it, that's also like from where the sympathy comes.
Ralph Hassenhuttel correctly explained that winning the Champions League is easier for Klopp to win that for Premier League is for Pep because it is harder to be top of the league after 38 games than it is to win fewer games in the Champions League.
Mo Salah
Mo Salah is currently being called things like the best player in Premier League history and the best player in the world by Liverpool fans. I’d like to bring up what happened in the 2021 African Cup of Nations which pretty much sums up Mo Salah’s career.
Egypt went into the Afcon as favourites and Salah was tipped to be one of the stars of the tournament but ended up being a massive disappointment. His only goals were against Sudan in the group stages and in the quarter finals against Morocco. Salah had very little impact as Egypt only scored 4 goals in the entire tournament.
Salah scored the 5th and final penalty in the round of 16 game to knock Ivory Coast out of the tournament. Against Cameroon in the Semi-Final, he didn’t take a penalty in the shootout as Cameroon missed 3 in a row. This was a risky tactic as you’d want your star player to be amongst the first players to take a penalty, but it became obvious that Salah was either seeking glory by wanting to be the 5th taker or didn’t have the balls to take a pressure penalty.
When the Final between Senegal ended goalless, Egypt went into a penalty shoot-out for the 3rd time in 4 knockout games. This time Salah’s glory hunting tactic didn’t work as 2 of his teammates missed and Salah didn’t end up take a penalty.
It doesn’t make sense that your star player doesn’t take a penalty in a major final. Why did he put his own needs ahead of the team, if not, why didn’t have the cojones to take a pressure penalty?
Even Jamie Carragher called is madness: ‘That is why your best penalty taker should never go fifth, Mo Salah not taking a penalty for Egypt in a shootout in a final is madness…’
Salah went off the boil after he returned from Afcon that season, not scoring as many goals but also not affecting matches. Despite Liverpool’s easy run to the Champions League Final, Salah only scored 2 knockout goals. He didn’t score in either of Liverpool’s 3 fixtures and at the business end of the season and when Liverpool needed their talisman to be decisive, he wilted, unlike Karim Benzema who turned up the heat and dragged his side to the Champions League final (in addition to winning the league).
By 14 May of that season, a stat was revealed that Salah had scored 1 non-penalty goal in his previous 21 games in all competition and that goal was against a horrific Manchester United.
Liverpool fans are extremely insecure when it comes to Salah, despite nobody bringing up the name Eden Hazard, Liverpool fans are quick to make comparisons to a player that left the Premier League 6 years ago. They were incensed when Kevin De Bruyne deservedly won the Premier League player of the season over Salah in 2021/22. They wanted a player that played well for half a season to win. An argument could be made that De Bruyne only played well for half a season (after being quiet the first half partially due to starting the season late with an injury and picking up corona virus during the season). As was the case with Benzema, the difference between De Buyne and Salah is that while De Bruyne burst into life in the business end of the season and led his side to the title, Salah wilted and wasn’t decisive for his team.
When Liverpool progressed to the Champions League Final, Salah was emphatic when asked about who he wanted to play in the final:
“I want to play Madrid, I have to be honest,” he told BT Sport. “City’s a really tough team, we play against them a few times this season. If you ask me personally I would prefer Madrid.”
Asked by Peter Crouch if that was due to wanting pay-back for the 2018 final in Kyiv, Salah laughed:
“Because we lost in the final before against them. So I want to play against them, hopefully win it against them as well.”
Salah was seeking revenge for the 2018 final but seemed to be taking it for granted that Liverpool would beat Madrid if they played them in the final. His overconfidence didn’t materialise into anything and he blanked in the final that Madrid won. Madrid players revealed after the game that Salah’s words had given them extra motivation going into the final as Rodrygo explains:
'When a guy provokes you, sometimes you just want to win so you can make fun of them,' said the then 21-year-old. 'In training, we used to say "come on Salah, come on Salah". 'In our head, it was already "we need to win to make fun of Salah".
After the final ended, we passed the Liverpool players in the corridor. Salah was a bit sad and [Luka] Modric said "try again next time".
Salah has played in multiple finals over the years but has scored 0 non-penalty goals. How a player like Salah that has won so little in his career can show that level of disrespect to the many serial winners in Madrid’s team is ironic.
Even if you were to hypothetically say that Salah is the best player in the world, he would be the worst best player in the world in the history of football (also says a lot about where the level of the sport is currently which I’ll discuss later). Salah is a flat track bully at best. When it’s crunch time, he goes missing.
Victimisation over fixture list
Klopp accused the Premier League and TV companies of throwing “a stick between the legs” of Liverpool’s quadruple chase with a fixture schedule that he claims no other league in the world would impose:
“The schedule, and how people use the fame in the moment – Liverpool is hot and everyone wants to see them – they couldn’t care less, the TV stations. It’s just not OK. “If we play a Champions League semi-final, find me another league in the world and another broadcaster who would put the one team in the semi-finals – it might be two or three English teams – on at 12.30. It’s like: ‘Throw them a little stick between the legs!’ What? What are you doing? Why would you do that? That’s why it’s so difficult, that’s why it never happens, because nobody cares.
If you are managing one of the biggest clubs in the world then your aim would be to win lots of trophies. In order to win lots of trophies you need to play lots of games. Clubs make most of their revenue from broadcasting so agree to the different broadcasting companies choosing their timeslots. Liverpool as a club hadn’t made any objections and were not complaining about the amount of money that they are receiving so why was Klopp complaining? There is also a certain time in the calendar that games can be played so every game needs to be fitted in a certain time frame. Every club in the football league would want to be involved in as many games as possible. If Klopp had objections to that then he should have been managing at a club like Southampton that plays games once a week.
Jurgen Klopp will complain about anything and everything, from the fixture list to tackles to the way the opposition sets up. Manchester City were missing their 3 best defenders (Walker, Stones, and Dias) for the final 3 games of that season yet City went on with it and ended up winning the title. We saw the constant moaning and complaining when Klopp’s centre backs got injured in the 2020/21 season as well as Klopp’s failure to adapt.
LMA Manager of the season
Despite Liverpool falling short in the champions league, Klopp was still voted LMA manager of the 2021/22 season thus proving that the LMA award has become a popularity contest. That was an insult to Pep Guardiola who had won the league with Manchester City. People will say that Liverpool won both domestic cup competitions but to put it into context, Liverpool didn’t score a goal in either game and won on penalty shootouts. They were outplayed by Chelsea in both finals. They didn’t score a goal in the Champions League final that season either, 3 finals, 0 goals (in a season they claimed that they were winning the quadruple). Klopp has proven to be a manager that in most cases needs perfect conditions to win, he had to have the best players, he needed easy opponents, a suitable fixture list with enough spacing and refereeing decisions to go his way. Most of all he needed a lot of luck, he isn’t someone that could grind out results. In 2021/22, he didn’t win a single game against the rest of the then top 4 nor did he spend more time at the summit of the table than Spurs. He didn’t win a single manager of the month award yet surprisingly came away with the LMA manager of the season award.
State of world football
In the past few years, the Premier League league is the easiest that it’s ever been. The physicality is a lot less. Tackles are lot softer, players are first bumping in the tunnel, players are picking opposition players up after they tackle them. These days a push will get you a penalty.
In terms of opposition, Chelsea are rebuilding after their ownership change, Spurs are all over the place, Manchester United are the worst they’ve ever been and while there has been some improvements on Arsenal’s end, they still seem far from seriously challenging for a title. Most of those clubs were nowhere close to challenging for a title in recent seasons. That left just City and Liverpool and Liverpool still hadn’t been able to take advantage of the situation.
In world football, PSG have never realistically looked like winning the Champions League, Barcelona’s off field problems saw a big drop off in the quality of their squad, Bayern Munich have been far from their best, Atletico Madrid have had some of their poorest seasons since Diego Simeone took over. All the Italian clubs are still very far from competing for the Champions League despite Inter playing the Champions League final 2 seasons ago. Real Madrid have been the only threatening team.
The Champions League is easier after the introduction of 5 substitutes. Teams can change the game more from the bench.
When Liverpool got to the final in 2022, they had the easiest fixture run of any team that I can remember getting to the final. Their fans hilariously dubbed their group ‘The group of death’ despite having Porto, a very poor Atletico Madrid and an AC Milan that were still trying to find a footing in European Football again. It wasn’t surprising that they won all their games without breaking a sweat. Their run to the final in the knockout stages were Inter Milan (who sold their talisman and best player that summer), Benfica and Villareal. Real Madrid on the other hand had to beat PSG, Chelsea and Manchester City to get to the final. Funnily enough, Real Madrid beat the top 3 teams in the Premier League that season. Liverpool didn’t do it once.
Aside from the issues that clubs across Europe have had, there is dearth of talented centre backs and an even bigger dearth of talented strikers.
It’s bemusing that despite Liverpool having everything in their favour, they were still battling to win major competitions regularly.
The English media have short memories so they are trying to make us believe that City and Liverpool are the greatest Premier League rivalry. This despite one of those teams having won 1 title in 34 years. Pundits are telling us that the level of football being played between these 2 sides is the best that there has ever been. The rivalry didn't having that toxic element and hatred that we had become used to. Gone are the days of Keane and Vieria smashing into each other or Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho and Benitez having a go at each other in press conferences and fighting on the touchline. If anything, Klopp and Guardiola are the hand holding rivalry. They look closer to kissing than to having a touchline spat.
Several Liverpool fans, legends and the English media thought that Liverpool would have a comfortable night in Paris. And it would've been, if not for Ancelotti's masterclass which was pragmatic perfection. Klopp proving once again that he isn't very good at managing finals.
In truth, Klopp’s Liverpool would have found it difficult to beat a 90s Everton team.
The Fans
Everyone is sick of the entitled attitude of modern day Liverpool supporters. They think every little thing is a success, every minor trophy is a major achievement. The new breed of fans are, quite frankly, deluded.
You want to talk about success? Look at Real Madrid. They came up against Barcelona at their peak and still managed to win four European Cups. That's what you call success.
But no, modern Liverpool fans are content with scraping by, thinking that winning a few trophies over a 10 year period is some kind of monumental achievement. And don't even get me started on their expectations. They genuinely believe they're going to win the quadruple every season.
And what's with the hypocrisy? When Manchester City gets an easy draw, Liverpool fans are crying foul. But when they get a favourable draw, suddenly it's all good?
The old Liverpool supporters were made of tougher stuff. They didn't settle for mediocrity, they demanded excellence. They didn't think the players were their mates, they expected them to perform.
It's time for modern day Liverpool fans to take a long, hard look in the mirror. They need to stop being so entitled, stop being so delusional. They need to remember what it means to be a true Liverpool supporter.
Klopp's influence on the fanbase has been profound, and not in a positive way. Fans now genuinely believe that winning a quadruple is not only possible but expected.
No team or fans have ever come out talking about winning the quadruple or bandied around terms like 'quadraphobia' and ‘the quad is on’ like Liverpool fans have.
I know a Liverpool fan that had the 7-0 scoreline against Manchester United framed. That is a trophy to them now. It’s quite frankly sad and pathetic. The same fan also said that Darwin Nunez has a higher ceiling than Erling Haaland. In my culture, we refer to someone like this as a ‘choothiya’.
Another fan told me that Darwin Nunez gives him Batistuta vibes. People use the abbreviation ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing) quite loosely when they are typing, but I genuinely did feel like rolling on the floor laughing when I heard that.
Liverpool fans incorrectly accuse Manchester United fans of celebrating when Manchester City were winning the league. The irony is that Liverpool fans have been doing that since the 90's.
To a certain extent you don’t blame the fanbase entirely. The are spurred on by the delusions of their manager, players and ex-players.
After Liverpool lost the 2022 Champions League final, Michael Owen called Liverpool "the best team in Europe.“ If only there was a European knockout competition with a final at the end to determine who the best team in Europe is.
‘I’m getting excited for the game and the fans are building up nicely outside the stadium. Hopefully it’ll be a fantastic game and I predict a 2-0 Liverpool win.’ – Steven Gerrard
‘Of course, Real can win – it’s a one-off game. I just think if City or Liverpool were playing Real Madrid in a one-off game, having their team and playing near their best, they’d win the game. I’m confident.’ – Jamie Carragher
After Liverpool won the Carabao Cup in 2024, Trent Alexander-Arnold went to X (formerly Twitter), to say 1/4 Hungry for more.. (in reference to the quadruple). He was put back in his box when that was the only piece of silverware that Liverpool ended up winning that season.
This was the same TAA that had a 28.6% passing accuracy in the final and switched off to let Vinicius Jnr. score the winner. Their entire game plan seemed like it was to pump aimless long balls up the pitch at every opportunity.
Blame could also be placed on “The Greatest Centre Back of all time” Virgil Van Dijk who fell short in the biggest moment and allowed the 2 v 1 overlap to become a thing rather than confronting Valverde aggressively when he had no support. Virgin fell short at the biggest moment and then went on to have a horrid season after that where Liverpool failed to qualify for the Champions League. We’ve seen a lot of great defenders have bad games, but no great defender has had a consistently bad season, so how this man gets compared to the greats is beggars belief. That season he was just Harry Maguire with a man bun. This is the same man the messed up the price for central defenders since his exorbitant transfer from Southampton to Liverpool.
After Liverpool lost the Champions League final in 2022, Klopp said:
"It's not bad to get to the final - it's kind of a success although not the success you want to have," he told BT Sport.
"I have a strong feeling we will come again. The boys are really competitive and are an outstanding group - they will be that again next season. And we go again. Where's it next season? Istanbul? Book the hotel!"
He should repay fans that were mislead into booking their trips for the next final because Liverpool didn’t even end up qualifying for the Champions League the following season.
Liverpool fans are known not to be the sharpest tools in the shed so having a manager like Klopp can easily lead them down the wrong path.
Klopp has steered fans in the direction where it has become feelings over facts.
David Coote
A video surfaced on social media of referee David Coote saying that Jurgen Klopp "is a cunt." David Coote unfortunately went on to lose his job as a result. What was David Coote’s crime? What did David Coote do wrong? Why did David Coote lose his job? David Coote was only speaking the truth.
Everyone except Liverpool fans know that Jurgen Klopp is a right old Cunt. The irony is that we keep getting told that the United Kingdom has freedom of speech and is a democracy but here is an innocent man getting cancelled when all he was doing was speaking the truth.
Gabby Agbonlohor
Gabby Agbonlohor criticised Manchester United after their league loss in the second game of the 2022/2023 season. Jurgen Klopp then took aim at Gabby Agbonlohor for criticising Manchester United.
Manchester United fans were amused as they don’t take Gabby Agbonlohor seriously nor do they need Jurgen Klopp to come their rescue. For Manchester United fans it’s simply a case of “a lion doesn’t concern himself with the opinion of sheep” but for Jurgen Klopp it was once again making everything about himself.
How a manager with that many years of experience can take the bait from a pundit of such little consequence over something so insignificant shows you the real mentality of the man.
Klopp having a go at journalists
After Liverpool lost to Manchester United in the FA Cup quarter finals in 2024, Klopp took exception to a question from Niels Christian Frederiksen about whether they had played too many matches and it had caught up to his players.
'You are obviously not in a great shape and I have no nerves for you,' Klopp became furious and left the interview.
Niels Christian Frederiksen later went on to tell Tipsbladet of how tensions continued to run high after the cameras stopped rolling: “I was very surprised by it, and those standing around were scared, and they were almost pressed up against the wall like: 'wow, what the hell just happened here?' It continued after what was seen on TV. He continued down the hallway, where he yelled and screamed at me. I also followed him because I thought it was something strange. I was very surprised, while some looked very shocked, and they asked: 'Are you okay?' and of course I'm okay.
This is what happens when you have the media eating out of the palm of your hand, one journalist asks you a straightforward question and you become hostile. Instead of answering the question he started screaming at the reporter.
Red Card
Jurgen Klopp received a red card for berating a referee's assistant during Liverpool's win over Manchester City in 2022.
It came on a weekend where Merseyside Youth League games were postponed, external amid ongoing issues with referee abuse.
This led to Ref Support UK (a leading referees charity) saying the following:
"People mimic what they see on TV," said Ref Support UK CEO Martin Cassidy.
"For years, we have said the dissension towards referees comes from the top down as well as the bottom up," Cassidy added.
"When you see world recognised figures like Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola behaving like that, it is then replicated by people in youth football and perpetuates the idea that it is OK to do it."
"Something snapped in that situation, I'm not proud of that - I deserved a red card, and the way I looked in this moment is not right," the German, 55 at the time, admitted.
However, Cassidy, a Liverpool fan, said apologies would not suffice and that the League Managers Association must encourage its members to behave more respectfully.
"As far as I'm aware, the LMA has never put out a statement condemning this behaviour - is there a code of conduct? They have to take responsibility," he said.
"The time has come to have some form of inquiry into the behaviour of people on the touchline - it goes on and on and I don't think people understand the ramifications it has at grassroots level."
This behaviour from Klopp is not an isolated incident and I’ve mentioned it in previous blogs. He had a free ride for too long and is someone who always wants to be the centre of attention and is setting a bad example for young people in the game everywhere. It should have been put to bed by the FA many years before and they should have never let it get that far.
Klopp was given a one-match ban, fined £30,000 and warned about his future conduct.
Further altercations with referees
Jurgen Klopp was shown a yellow card for celebrating Liverpool's 94th-minute winner against Tottenham Hotspur in 2023 in front of the fourth official and later claimed what Tierney said to him was "not OK".
The PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited), said Tierney "acted in a professional manner" throughout the game and when cautioning Klopp.
Klopp was furious with Spurs being awarded a free-kick which led to their equaliser and ran to scream at the fourth official after the winner, but hurt his leg in front of the Tottenham bench.
He was shown a yellow card by the referee after his celebration.
"We have our history with Tierney, I really don't know what he has against us," Klopp told Sky Sports. "He has said there [are] no problems but that cannot be true.
"How he looks at me, I don't understand it. In England nobody has to clarify these situations, it's really tricky and hard to understand.
"What he said to me when he gave me the yellow card is not OK."
PGMOL, the body responsible for Premier League referees, said: "PGMOL is aware of the comments made by Jurgen Klopp after his side's fixture with Tottenham Hotspur.
"Match officials in the Premier League are recorded in all games via a communications system.
"Having fully reviewed the audio of referee Paul Tierney from today's fixture, we can confirm he acted in a professional manner throughout including when issuing the caution to the Liverpool manager.
"So, therefore, we strongly refute any suggestion that Tierney's actions were improper."
Former England striker Alan Shearer told BBC Match of the Day: "Paul Tierney could have sent Diogo Jota off and he [Klopp] isn't too quick to mention that.
"Jurgen Klopp was lucky, when he went to the fourth official, just to get the yellow card and it's not the first time he has done it."
Klopp hilariously pulled his hamstring during the celebration, once again making himself look even sillier.
On his injury, Klopp told BBC Sport: "I'm not sure if it's the hamstring, it could be the adductor but I got punished.
"I turned around for the celebration because the fourth official got nothing wrong the whole time.
"I didn't say anything bad, I gave a look which is bad enough. The hamstring or whatever the muscle [is] gave up in that moment. That's fair."
In a previous incident Klopp told Tierney "I have no problem with any referees, only you" again after a match with Tottnham Hotspur.
After a loss to Brentford, Klopp said he had approached the officials - including Tierney - to discuss decisions made during the game.
"That's exactly the same as I would talk to my microwave, you get no response, really, it's always the same," he told beIN Sports.
Klopp also took a sarcastic swipe at former referee Mike Dean as he discussed the decision not to award Liverpool a late penalty against Manchester City. The Reds boss also predicted that he would receive a call from PGMOL chief Howard Webb following the incident.
"Again, you will find people… don’t you employ Mike Dean, is he working for Sky? Congratulations, that’s a great appointment by the way. He will find something and all the others as well," Klopp added sarcastically. "It’s a penalty for all football people on the planet. It’s a penalty. If you think it’s not one then maybe you’re not a football fan."
In another interview with beIN Sports, Klopp then adjusted his aim toward the PGMOL’s chief. "It’s a clear penalty," he said. "Somebody will explain the reason why it’s not or Howard Webb will call us tomorrow, [but] both things will not change the result!"
As mentioned, this type of behaviour was going on for many years with Klopp. Constantly using referees as an excuse for his and his team’s own shortcomings. This despite Liverpool being on the right end of many controversial VAR and refereeing decisions over the years. Instead of looking at himself and how he can improve his team, the referees unfortunately got the bad end of the stick.
And for Liverpool fans that defend and condone this type of behaviour, don't piss in my pocket and tell me that it's raining. It’s clear for everyone to see, it’s happening right in front of our eyes.
Conclusion
I’m often asked about why I write blogs about Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp but the truth is that that’s an unfair question. When it comes to Liverpool and especially Jurgen Klopp, I don’t write the blogs, the blogs write themselves.
To sum up Liverpool under Klopp would be the image of players laughing and dancing at the open bus parade Liverpool had after they lost the Champions League final. Yes, Liverpool actually had an open bus parade after losing a Champion League final. If my team had an open bus parade after losing a final, I would be cringing. Also, how can you have an open bus parade for winning the Carabao Cup and FA Cup. Are you Leicester City or are you Liverpool? It’s embarrassing how losing a final can be glorified in that manner.
Jamie Carragher said that "This Liverpool team haven't actually won enough for how good of a team they are."
For all Liverpool’s puffing and panting at the beginning of each season, when it comes down to the business end, Liverpool start playing like Katchra from Lagaan, not a lot of skill, just mainly luck.
Personally, Klopp’s personality makes me cringe. Everything seems so fake, fake hair, fake teeth, fake personality. You can see that he does things for the camera, fists his heart, hugs players etc. He’s more suited to Hollywood than the Premier League.
Liverpool are the best second best team we’ve ever seen (even though they’ve only finished runners up twice). If Klopp and Mourinho go to a bar, Klopp will be the guy buying a girl drinks and trying to chat her up all night, Mourinho will be the guy that comes in at the end, flexes his muscles and leaves with the girl for the night.
When you look at the finishes under Klopp, how can Liverpool be considered a great team?
Klopp has lost more finals than he has won in his career including 4/5 European Finals. Of the 9 finals he has won, only 4 were won inside 90 minutes.
You will be judged on the league titles you have won. Winning every competition once (and the Carabao Cup twice) is not what you would call a serial winner.
Klopp himself said when he was leaving that “other top managers collect trophies, I collect relationships.” Winning is secondary to him, hugging, kissing and fist bumping is more important. How can you take a manager like that seriously?
Klopp famously came up with the term “Mentality Monstors” when speaking about his players.
Mentality Monster? No, Jurgen Klopp is a specialist in failure.
