Graeme Souness feels Jurgen Klopp overstepped the mark when he celebrated in the fourth official’s face on Sunday at Anfield, saying the Liverpool boss is a ‘sore loser’.
The Reds beat 4-3 in an amazing game, which saw the home side go 3-0 ahead in 15 minutes, find themselves pegged back to 3-3 in the 93rd minute, only to win it moments later.
Diogo Jota scored that late winner and Klopp celebrated wildly and right in the face of the fourth official, before comically pulling his hamstring.
It may have been a funny ending, but Souness says Klopp went too far and will need to tone down his actions to avoid punishment in the future.
‘What did on Sunday, by running up to the fourth official and getting in his face, overstepped the mark. I have been a manager and I know there have been times when I was embarrassed by my actions,’ Souness wrote in his .
‘When you’re that aggressive towards an official, it is not a good look. It is not an argument you’re going to win and it will end up getting you in trouble, like Klopp has.
‘I have sat behind Liverpool’s dugout in an empty stadium, the game at home to Chelsea when they won the league three years ago.
‘I learnt that night that their bench is up for an argument, and it’s not just Klopp, they’re all at it. They’re very confrontational.
‘I later read [referee] Mark Clattenburg’s autobiography and I recall him saying that Klopp was the worst of all the managers when it came to being a sore loser. That is what we are seeing.’
Speaking about the incident, Klopp said: ‘The whole situation shouldn’t have happened at all, that’s how it is. It was out of emotion, it was out of anger in that moment – never a good leader for the things you do.
‘That’s why I celebrated the way I celebrated. There was the situation with the foul on Mohamed Salah – well, no foul but a foul [according to the referee]. It was directly in front of my eyes so I saw it was no foul but he whistled for it anyway, free-kick, another free-kick and then the goal and then a minute later we score.
‘So usually that should be a moment where you just be happy that you scored a goal, but unfortunately I was still kind of angry and that lead to the way I celebrated. I didn’t say anything wrong. I was shouting, “Without you, without you!” – It doesn’t even make a lot of sense, but that was all.’
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