Jurgen Klopp has opened up on the fallout from his controversial interview at Manchester United last month, admitting he knew criticism would come his way for storming off.
After Liverpool’s 4-3 defeat at Old Trafford in the FA Cup on March 17, Klopp made additional headlines for the abrupt manner that his post-match chat with Danish publication Viaplay was ended.
After objecting to a handful of questions around the fatigue of his players and the jam-packed schedule from reporter Niels Christian Frederiksen, a terse Klopp cut short the interview in frustration.
The incident inevitably went viral with the manager coming under fire from certain sections of the media as a result and the Reds boss has revealed that he knew some pushback would be forthcoming.
Ahead of his return to Old Trafford for Sunday’s crucial Premier League meeting with United, Klopp has attempted to explain why he took the decision to walk away after the disappointing extra-time defeat.
“There was this famous interview afterwards – I’d like to say I was out of the country thankfully (for the fall-out) but I wasn’t, I stayed in the country – but I knew what would happen, actually,” Klopp said.
“I was really calm after the game, I was not even angry, because I knew that, yes, we had to win it in this period. The first 15-20 minutes United were there, really aggressive and scored the goal.
“But then we took over and it was the best we played against them for a while for sure. In similar situations there was really good football without scoring. And then, after 90 minutes, I saw minute by minute that it was too much.
“It was the end of this intense spell, after all the games we played, and now extra time was the killer for us. That’s why I said after the game that it was the first time I saw us struggling.
“It was too much for this specific group, with the way we had to change, with the players coming back just in time for this game and these kinds of things. But I was not angry. And then the guy asked me about intensity and that was just when it snapped.”
Klopp added: “As if anybody would be interested in the intensity or why you cannot keep up the intensity with them? United played, I don’t know how many, fewer games than we had until then.
“But the game was brilliant in moments, absolutely brilliant, but we did not have the legs that day obviously to use it. You saw these quick attacks we had, these four-v-three situations, and then unlikely for us we pretty consistently found the wrong player to finish it off.
“There is nothing you can do. That is just when the brain is not really fresh and the boys don’t see the right solution. That’s how it is and you have to accept it and I did. We lost because they stayed in the game, scored their goals, we made mistakes for two of them, and that’s how it happened.”