Less than a week after the Merseyside Derby, Jürgen Klopp revealed something he still can’t accept about the match and Everton’s attitude.
There are some things about the Merseyside Derby that Jürgen Klopp still has difficulties to accept. For starters, it’s hard to think the Reds will be title contenders as they were when they had a fit Virgil van Dijk. The Dutch defender was arguably the biggest reason they won both the Premier League and the Champions League recently.
For Klopp, Everton players’ behavior isn’t normal and they should’ve been punished severely for what they did. But the German manager has a different style, he won’t ask for their suspension or anything of sorts. All he can do is complain against the officials who made those calls, especially the “no-foul” against Virgil van Dijk.
Klopp’s rant against VAR and Everton.
“A couple of days ago, something happened that should not have happened on a football pitch,” began Klopp via Liverpool’s website.
“It is not the first and it won’t be the last, but I see it as similar to my players. Both challenges were difficult to accept, let me say it like this. But we cannot change it now, so what we all can do is try to change these kinds of things.
“I spoke the day after and it is really hard for us as Virgil is our boy. It has nothing to do with the quality of the player. Yes, he is a world-class player but we missed Oxlade-Chamberlain as well and injuries happen in football.
“Very often in challenges both players try to play the ball and this was not the case in these two challenges. It makes it so different and difficult to take.
“In the last four years if I look, we are the leader of the Fair Play table. You don’t get anything for that and often it is something where people make a joke where they say ‘you are top of that table but you are not up there in the real table’.
“In both tables we were pretty high so it means we can play football without these kinds of challenges. In this game, a few things came together.
“First, the ref doesn’t see it, so it is Michael Oliver who doesn’t see it and he is an excellent referee usually, but why he couldn’t see it I don’t understand as he had the best view. And the VAR forgets the rules!
“As a human being, it is all about that, it is not that I want the Everton players punished. But I think it is something we all agree on. If you do something wrong you have to deal with the consequences. And at this moment, it is only one person who deals with the consequences.
“Or two, sorry: Virgil van Dijk and Thiago Alcantara. All the rest goes on just like this. You [the media] keep all these stories up. I am here for the Champions League game and want to focus on the Champions League game.
“You ask these questions and now again everyone will judge us that we don’t deal with it in the right way. We did nothing wrong in the game, and I don’t we haven’t done anything wrong since.
“But mostly our players are the ones who suffer and that doesn’t feel right. It is not easy to deal with these things. Again, we all accept that injuries can happen, but it should be in a normal challenge.”
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