JOSE MOURINHO has taken a swipe at the ‘behaviour’ of the Liverpool bench during last night’s Spurs defeat at Anfield, as his war of words with Jurgen Klopp rumbles on.
The Portuguese had already stoked the the fire pre-match, by dismissing the Reds’ injury concerns.
Klopp and Mourinho clashed at the end of the matchCredit: AP:Associated Press
And after watching Roberto Firmino power home a 90th minute winner, the fuming Spurs boss told Jurgen Klopp that, having mustered two shots on target, ‘the best team lost’.
Reds right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold took a cheeky dig back at Mourinho, 57, on Instagram, by posting a picture of himself labelled ‘Best team won’, followed by a smiley face emoji.
But Mourinho’s criticism of Klopp and Co didn’t end there, as he revealed that he substituted Giovani Lo Celso in the 58th minute because he ‘feared’ that the antics of the Liverpool bench would get his man sent off.
He said: “At half-time we moved a little bit the pieces to try and improve, which we did.
“The tactical changes were to try to give Gio Lo Celso more space coming from the right to start having a little bit more of the ball and find counter-attack situations, which we did immediately in the first 10 minutes.
“With this yellow card and the behaviour of these guys they (Liverpool) have on the touchline, putting incredible pressure on referees I feared for a possible second yellow card.
“And Gio was playing exactly in front of their bench in an area that (was) very dangerous. So I was afraid of the yellow card and I had to take him off.”
And that wasn’t the only swipe he took against Klopp and his coaching staff.
Giovani Lo Celso was substituted just before the hour markCredit: AFP
Firmono powered the champions to a late victoryCredit: AFP
He went on: “The best team lost and he (Klopp) disagreed but that’s his opinion.
“By the way, if I behave on the touchline like he does then I’m not there.
“Come on, that’s animated. Do you want to take the table with the time from the fourth official? I’m saying for some reason I’m different and I’m sad.”
The result saw Liverpool leapfrog the North Londoners at the top of the Premier League table, with 28 points from 13 games so far this season.
Strong words between Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho at full-time after Liverpool’s late winner against Spurs
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
