Jurgen Klopp should serve a 10-match ban for his red card against Manchester City and other managers claiming the German's actions won't trickle down to grassroots football are 'deluded'.
That's the view of former Premier League striker Chris Sutton, who admitted to his own indiscretions in the past as both a player and a dad on the sidelines in youth football.
Liverpool boss Klopp was sent to the stands by referee Anthony Taylor after bawling in the face of referee's assistant Gary Beswick when the official failed to award the Reds a free kick following a foul on Mohamed Salah in Sunday's dramatic 1-0 home win over City. Klopp is still to learn whether he will be subject to any form of touchline ban as a consequence and is expected to be back in the dugout when his side face West Ham United at Anfield this evening, but pundit Sutton thinks that is sending all the wrong messages.
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Writing in the Mail this morning, Sutton said: " Jurgen Klopp lost his head in the heat of the moment and he knows it. He’ll cringe when he sees those pictures of him intimidating the assistant, Gary Beswick, who you imagine won’t be sending him a Christmas card this year. But we’ve all been there. I lost my head as a player on occasion.
"I once lost it as a dad, too, when I saw my son hacked down during an Under-14s game back in 2009. Even now, 13 years later, I regret my reaction after the red mist descended. Other parents said I should be setting a better example and they’re right. I should, and Klopp should, too."
The Liverpool manager has received support in some quarters from fellow Premier League managers, including Everton boss Frank Lampard, who highlighted the high-pressure environment a top-flight football manager work in and the passion that the games evoke. But former Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea striker Sutton does not agree.
Writing about Klopp, he added: "He is on an entirely different level from us touchline dads. He’s the manager of one of the world’s biggest clubs and millions watch how he acts. What he does is copied, despite what Frank Lampard is claiming. ‘If Klopp can do that in a top-flight game, why can’t I get away with it on a Sunday morning?’
"Klopp has since acknowledged he was in the wrong, which is all he can do. But if we want managers to stop behaving in this way, the onus is on the FA to make sure the punishments are enough of a deterrent. Klopp will be on the touchline against West Ham tonight and that’s wrong. If we want to stamp out this sort of behaviour, immediate bans are a must.
"They should miss three games, six games, maybe even 10 if we truly want to drive home that this behaviour is unacceptable."
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