Jürgen Klopp has admitted the referee Paul Tierney does not have an agenda against Liverpool and that he regrets detracting from the thrilling win against Tottenham on Sunday with his touchline conduct.
The Football Association is expected to charge the Liverpool manager for questioning Tierney’s integrity and possibly for alleging the referee had spoken in an inappropriate manner when showing him a yellow card for confronting the fourth official, John Brooks.
The Professional Game Match Officials Limited rejected Klopp’s claims on Sunday, insisting that a recording of the exchange proves Tierney behaved in a “professional manner”. The audio may form part of the FA’s case against Klopp, whose previous disciplinary record may result in an increased punishment. Ironically, and contrary to Klopp’s post-match claims, the Liverpool manager disclosed on Tuesday that Tierney had been talked out of issuing a red card to Klopp for running up to Brooks, suffering a grade-two hamstring tear in the process, by the fourth official.
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“The whole situation shouldn’t have happened,” Klopp said. “I didn’t say anything wrong [to Brooks]. I was shouting: ‘Without you, without you’. It didn’t make a lot of sense but that was all. Paul Tierney came over to me and I didn’t expect at all a red card because I didn’t feel it was right. I expected a yellow card and he said to me: ‘For me it’s a red card but because of him’ – that’s what I understood because it was loud in the stadium – ‘it’s yellow’. Showed me a yellow and smiled to my face. That’s it.
“The things which were made of what Paul Tierney said to me, I didn’t say. I said: ‘What he said to me was not OK’ and I thought it was not OK because it was not a red card in my view. I understand I opened the box. The rest was how I felt in that moment about Paul Tierney reffing our games. I am very sure he is not doing it intentionally but we have a history and I cannot deny that.
“Of course things didn’t happen intentionally but they are still there and it’s a feeling. I know the refs were really angry about what I said and now go for it. I heard I was lying. I did a lot of things that day but I didn’t lie.”
Klopp admits he is disappointed at detracting from Liverpool’s victory with his reaction to Diogo Jota’s 94th-minute winner. He said: “We won a football game in a very spectacular manner and the only headlines are the ones I created and I really regret that. It is absolutely not necessary and not how it should be. I probably have to expect a punishment.”
