Jurgen Klopp shared his side of the story relating to his touchline antics and Paul Tierney criticism attached to Liverpool's 4-3 triumph over Tottenham Hotspur.
Frustrated by Paul Tierney's decision not to award a free-kick in the Reds' favour after Mohamed Salah's shirt was tugged by Ben Davies, Spurs went up the other end of the pitch and scored an equaliser after winning a foul of their own in a dangerous position.
Richarlison's celebrations were short-lived, however, as Liverpool struck just 99 seconds later to secure three points and spark a wild celebration from Klopp along the touchline. Sprinting and gesturing in the direction of fourth official John Brooks, the Liverpool boss let out the anger that had built up due to Tierney's role in Spurs' third goal moments earlier.
READ MORE: Jurgen Klopp's feud with Paul Tierney leaves Liverpool in undignified situation
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Klopp was then shown a yellow card by Tierney for his reaction to the Reds' fourth strike of Sunday afternoon and took the opportunity to voice his concerns over the Premier League official when speaking post-match, having previously been at the centre of other controversial calls in Liverpool games.
Setting the record straight on what occurred at Anfield, Klopp went into great detail as to why he acted in the way he did and what Tierney told him after dishing out a booking.
"The whole situation shouldn’t have happened at all, that’s how it is," admitted the German on Tuesday afternoon. "It was out of emotion and anger in that moment, which is never a good leader for the things you do. That’s why I celebrated the way I celebrated. There was a situation with a foul on Mo, no foul, and the foul that was whistled was directly in front of my eyes so I saw it was no foul, but he whistled it anyway for a free-kick and then the goal. A minute later, we scored. That's a moment where I should just be happy that we could score a goal but, unfortunately, I was still kind of angry and that led to the way I celebrated.
“I didn’t say anything wrong. I was shouting ‘Without you’, without you’. It doesn’t even make a lot of sense, but that was all. I couldn’t really get close to the fourth official and I didn’t want to get close to him, not at all. I then felt my muscle and Paul Tierney came over to me and I didn't expect a red card. I know I had a red card not too long ago and I didn’t expect for a second a red card because I didn’t feel it was right. I expected a yellow card in that moment and he said to me ‘For me, it’s a red card but because of him [fourth official] it’s yellow’. He showed me a yellow card and smiled at my face, that’s it. Red card for what? We then go inside, I tried to calm down and it didn’t work out properly. I go into all the interviews and then I said what I said.
"I said what he said to me was not OK and I actually thought it is not OK because it was not a red card in my view and then the things happen. I understand I opened the box with that, not intentionally- but I opened it. Your colleague [Sky] stepped into it and wanted me to carry on and said all these words like ‘Was it appropriate?’ and I stopped it here. Maybe I should have said in that moment ‘He said to me it was a red card and I didn’t think it was a red card’. But from that moment on, I realised I opened a box I didn’t want to open.
“The rest of the things I said about how I felt in that moment about Paul Tierney whistling our games, I’m very sure he is not doing it intentionally but we have history and I cannot deny that. I am not a resentful person, not at all, I think it is a waste of time. But these things that happened in the past, in decisive games for us, that happened. Of course it didn’t happen intentionally, but they are still there. That’s a feeling, nothing else. The refs were really angry about what I said and I heard I was lying and stuff like this. I did a lot of things that day, but I didn’t lie. I shouldn’t have said a couple of things, but lying was not involved in that.”
Only last month, Liverpool were involved in another high-profile incident with a match official after Constantine Hatzidakis appeared to elbow Andy Robertson shortly after the half-time whistle sounded in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal at Anfield. Hatzidakis avoided punishment from the Football Association (FA) and apologised to the Reds' left-back during a private Zoom call that was arranged in light of the coming together.
Asked if something similar could be arranged to clear the air between him and Tierney, Klopp responded: "I don’t know, it’s not in my hands what’s going on now. We won a football game 4-3, in a very spectacular manner. The only headlines we had I created, and I really regret that. It is absolutely not necessary and that’s really not how it should be. I gave you all the opportunity and everyone had their say about it, and that’s OK.
"I have no clue what’s happening now. Everybody tells us something will come, but we didn’t hear yet from the FA, the refs or anybody else.”
"I probably have to expect a punishment. Referees think I questioned their integrity which if I am sitting here now calm, I don't do. The red card v City was the same spot and player, Mo Salah involved."
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