Gabby Agbonlahor has described Jurgen Klopp’s comments about his punditry “a bit strange” after the former Aston Villa striker and Liverpool manager were involved in a war of words.
The disagreement came after Klopp took issue with Agbonlahor’s assessment of Manchester United ’s 4-0 thrashing by Brentford. Agbonlahor said United's players were "amateur" and described their performance as "a shambles" before declaring they look "like strangers on the pitch" during a rant on talkSPORT.
Klopp happened to be listening to the comments live and decided to bring them up during his press conference before Liverpool travelled to Old Trafford on Monday. “Gabby…[Agbonlahor] he lost against us 6-0 in my first year, I couldn’t remember him as a mentality monster on the pitch,” he said. “What he said about United on that show, I was close to calling in. I was close to calling in and telling him, you forgot completely what it’s like to be a player. It was unbelievable! When ex-players go like this then you can imagine how everything else is going.”
Agbonlahor then responded with a carefully chosen picture of him celebrating a goal against Liverpool in a Villa win at Anfield. The 35-year-old has now given an interview in which he criticised Klopp’s reaction to his punditry.
“Every pundit, everyone in the pub, every girl talking to her mates, would say exactly the same things about Man United as I did,” he told the Daily Mail. “Man United fans on the phone-in were saying ten times worse.
“So for Klopp to say that was a bit strange and to mention the 6-0 was even stranger. Why make it personal? What should I have said? That Man Utd were ‘splendidly unlucky to lose 4-0?’ I just told the truth.”
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He added: “Why was he defending Man United? And the whole ‘Gabby who?’ thing. Him pretending not to know my surname. Why? He has watched football. He will know my name. And then his team lose at Man United anyway. He was talking about me not being a mentality monster. Well his team didn't look like mentality monsters in that game did they? And he is supposed to be the mentality monster king.”
Agbonlahor’s comments come after he had previously tried to bury the hatchet with the Liverpool manager. "He wouldn't take advice off me as a coach, would he, so I'm not going to take advice off Jurgen Klopp,” he said last week. “But it's settled now.”
Liverpool went on to lose 2-1 at Old Trafford against Manchester United, perhaps helping to prove Klopp’s point about their performance against Brentford. Klopp has much bigger things to worry about, with his side winless from their opening three Premier League matches. They will try to bounce back from the United defeat when they face Bournemouth in a 3pm kick-off at Anfield on Saturday.
