Klopp aims at Manchester United's penalty record: 'How can that happen?'

Jurgen Klopp questioned the gap between Liverpool and Manchester United’s awarded penalties after Monday night’s defeat.

Liverpool suffered a huge blow to their Premier League title hopes as they lost 1-0 against Southampton at St. Mary’s Stadium. Danny Ings proved once again he loves scoring against his former club. The Englishman launched the Saints to victory very early in the game after a failed tackle from Trent Alexander-Arnold. The Liverpool right-back broke a negative record this season as he gave the ball away 38 times before being subbed-off.

In his post-match press conference, Jurgen Klopp looked naturally annoyed at the match’s outcome. Moreover, Liverpool’s boss complained about the referee’s refusal to award his team a penalty. Sadio Mane went down on the penalty box around the hour mark after a challenge by Kyle Walker-Peters.

“I turned around, we had a really good view of it. It looked like a clear penalty. I turned to the fourth official, he said ‘we checked already, no penalty’. That’s the 100 per cent truth. They checked it already.”

Putting rivalries and bias aside, how is this not a penalty under the current rules?#mane #penalty #lfc pic.twitter.com/uYLlJVYOUW
— BlownDiffuser (@ControlledCha05) January 4, 2021

Klopp defended Sadio Mane as some have accused the forward of going down too easily in the box.

“What Andre Marriner did with Sadio Mane tonight, I’m not sure that’s okay, to be honest,” Klopp explained. “The boy tried absolutely everything. There were a few great challenges but there were a lot of situations that should have been free-kicks as well. The last situation when he goes down if you see that back in the box, he (Kyle Walker-Peters) hits him in the end with his left foot and that’s another penalty.”

The German manager couldn’t have been pleased with the similarities between the challenge on Mane and Douglas Luiz‘s tackle on Pogba four days ago. Klopp also believes their rivals benefit a lot more from this aspect of the game.

“I heard now that Man Utd had more penalties in two years since Ole has been there than I had in five-and-a-half years. I have no idea if it’s my fault, I don’t know well how that can happen. But that’s no excuse for the performance tonight.”