JURGEN KLOPP is already world-renowned for his incredible excuses following defeats – and he was at it again on Tuesday night.
Liverpool were beaten 3-1 by Los Blancos in their Champions League quarter-final first-leg at Real’s Alfredo Di Stefano training pitch.
The Spanish giants were good value for their win, with the Reds fortunate to only escape with a two-goal deficit.
Yet after the game Klopp blamed the ground for his side’s loss, saying it was ‘difficult’ to play at the training stadium.
Klopp claimed: “This was strange tonight because it was really difficult with the stadium.
“But Anfield is at least a proper stadium and it will be good for us.
“If you want to have some emotional memories you watch the Barcelona game back… 80 per cent of it is the atmosphere in the stadium.”
And it’s by no means the German chief’s first-ever wacky excuse… check out 14 of his other classics from his time at Liverpool below…
IS THIS A WIND UP?
IN December 2015, Klopp blamed ‘extreme wind’ in England for Liverpool struggling with to implement his ‘Gegenpress’ philosophy.
Just two months after taking over at Anfield, Liverpool were tenth in the table after eight wins, five draws and three losses with the German at the helm.
And Klopp took aim at the weather, saying: “The English game is not faster than the German game. Perhaps there are a few more sprints.
“But there is a different style of football here, partially due to the weather.
“The wind can be quite extreme in England. We are not familiar with that in Germany and you have to keep things simple.
“Players who are not from the UK have to get used to the winds.
“I have to adapt my style of football as a result as well. Often, you are forced to keep things simple.
“And there are a lot more duels for the second ball here, and more duels in general. That makes the game even more intense.”
FREE BETS: GET OVER £2,000 IN SIGN UP OFFERS HERE
CAN’T TELL WEATHER JUR JOKING?
KLOPP took another swipe at the wind in January 2017, after overseeing a League Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of Southampton.
Despite boasting 83 per cent possession, the Reds slipped to a 1-0 loss on the night – 2-0 on aggregate – to miss out on a trip to Wembley.
But it wasn’t his team’s fault, Klopp explained: “First half, it was difficult – the wind was really strange, it was difficult to handle.
“You saw one or two times when the ball stopped in a moment when nobody knew about it.
“That was difficult for a football-playing side.”
SMELLYVISION
VIDEO killed the radio star… and Liverpool’s FA Cup hopes in 2018 – apparently.
In January of that year, Klopp claimed broadcaster BT Sport ordered minimal stoppage time in the fourth-round loss to West Brom.
After slipping to a 3-2 loss at Anfield, Klopp bizarrely claimed: “What I heard was that the actual extra time in the first half should have been ten minutes. It was only four.
“I heard that television said it’s not longer than four minutes.
“Of course that’s not possible, you can’t cut match time because there is something else to broadcast.
“I don’t know what was on afterwards, maybe the news or something. It was ten minutes and so you need to play ten minutes longer.
“You can’t say, ‘It’s now a little bit too long.’”
DON’T BE A GRASS, JURGEN
ANOTHER game against West Brom, another disappointing performance – this time throwing away a 2-0 lead to draw with the Baggies in April 2018.
Rather than accept the lack of defensive concentration, Klopp took aim at the dry pitch, because, why wouldn’t he?
The German said: “You have to create the best circumstances to help the boys deliver and then we let the home team decide whether they water the pitch or not.
“It is not only for football, it is also dangerous for injuries if the pitch is really dry.
“I wouldn’t have said nothing about that probably if we had won but it is all you see during the game.”
HAVING A GIGG-LE?
PICTURE the scene – it’s July 2018 and England is engulfed in a glorious heatwave and the nation rejoices at the prospect of a bit of sun.
While the shorts and flip-flops came out and parks were filled with tan-seekers, Klopp was instead bemoaning the beaming sunshine.
After a pre-season draw against League Two minnows Bury at their Gigg Lane home, the ex-Borussia Dortmund chief blamed the heat, of all things.
Klopp said: “The mix-up of intensity in training, very warm weather and a very dry pitch is not the best preparation for a football game.
“Making the right decisions when you are really tired, when it is really warm and the ball is not really rolling is very difficult.
“I knew that before, and that’s what we saw today.”
GOOD PEP TALK
IN December 2018, Klopp decided to ramp up the heat in his Liverpool side’s battle with Man City to lift the Premier League title.
Sounds good in theory – until you realise Klopp blamed the other 18 teams in the top-flight for making it tougher on them, saying Pep Guardiola and Co were given more respect.
The Kop boss said: “They don’t have the same respect for us that they have for Man City, for example.
“Against City, you watch it and wonder what they are doing. A week later they play us and they are thinking, right, let’s try.
“City deserve that but it makes a big difference because we have to be 100 per cent concentrated all the time.”
SICK NOTE
BLAMING an off-day on illness is nothing new.
But Klopp incredibly suggested his entire team bar one were suffering from sore throats after their FA Cup defeat against Wolves in January 2019.
Despite playing a heavily weakened team, including Ki-Jana Hoever and Rafa Camacho – Klopp refused to blame his selection.
He said: “After the City game we immediately had a few players who were ill, who showed a sore throat and all you can have in this period of the year.
“Pretty much all the players who were not here today had little problems.
“We wanted to control the game because we were completely new, especially defensively. So it makes sense that you keep the ball.
“The wind didn’t help with that, to be honest, obviously everybody on the pitch struggled a bit with controlling the ball and the first touch was, very often, not that good.”
SNOW EXCUSES
HOT weather, wind – now snow. Yep, you’ve guessed it. Jurgen Klopp just doesn’t like weather, I guess.
Despite cheekily only clearing one end in a bid to give his side an advantage during the draw with Leicester in January 2019, Klopp STILL took aim at the snow.
He said: “You saw that the ball didn’t roll really.
“If you then have the ball pretty much for 70 to 80 percent of the time it makes life really uncomfortable.
“The only problem is if it stays on the pitch and that was actually the case.”
HAMMER BLOW
THIS is getting silly now – as Klopp vaguely blamed ‘strange situations’ for yet another two dropped points, in the draw with West Ham in February 2019.
The German took a swipe at referee Kevin Friend, saying: “We had good moments and we score the goal which was offside… the referee must know that at half-time.
“It explains the second half because I think the referee knew and you saw there were a lot of strange situations, not decisive, just rhythm breakers.
“There were so many situations where it was 50-50 or 60-40… a free kick for the other team.”
Klopp was charged by the FA for his outburst – and fined £8,000.
(LACK OF) RHYTHM’S GOING TO GET YOU
ANOTHER game, another draw – as Liverpool slipped to a stalemate with arch-enemies Manchester United later that month.
With the weather all-too pleasant, Klopp was forced to look elsewhere for an excuse – and he opted for, a ‘lack of rhythm due to injuries’.
…even though three of the four first-half knocks were Man Utd players.
Klopp revealed: “It’s difficult. It was a strange game. We started really, really well, exactly as we wanted to start.
“Then the injury crisis started as well. That obviously cost us our rhythm. It was like, ‘What’s going on now?’
“United played with a completely new midfield, pretty much a new three up front. We lost the rhythm and couldn’t get it back.”
SHOOTING THE BREEZE
IN March 2019, Klopp just couldn’t resist a nostalgia hit by having a go at the wind.
After the 0-0 at Goodison Park, the Anfield chief said: “It was a very difficult game for different reasons against a wild opponent.
“I know people don’t like it when I say it, but the wind came from all different directions.
“It didn’t help any football play, especially when the ball was in the air, which it was a lot.”
The old ones are the best, eh, Jurgen?
MUDDY HELL
IN October of this season, Liverpool scraped a 1-0 Champions League group stage win over Ajax.
But after the game, Klopp bemoaned the state of the pitch – suggesting it was too muddy.
The Kop boss said: “The pitch was really tricky, it was deep, muddy a little bit.
“Maybe you can’t see it from outside, but it was like this because both teams looked really exhausted pretty early.”
Klopp later added: “Surprisingly, the pitch was not good.
“I thought a football playing side would have a good pitch.”
BT SQUAWK
A MONTH later, in November 2020, Klopp lashed out at BT Sport – blaming the broadcasting giants after another of his players picked up an injury.
Following the 1-1 draw at Brighton, in which James Milner went off injured, Klopp hit out at interviewer Des Kelly, suggesting their scheduling was to blame for his squad’s spate of knocks.
Following the game, Klopp was asked about Milner’s injury, to which he sarcastically quipped: “Congratulations.”
When Kelly objected by saying ‘not me personally’, Klopp continued his tirade, roaring: “Well you work for them.
“I don’t know how often I have to say it, but you pick the 12:30 kick offs.
“Between now and December there is one more Wednesday, Saturday.
“These are difficult times. I am just saying it how it is… Wednesday to Saturday 12:30 is really dangerous.”
FROST-BITTEN
ALREADY in the midst of a torrid run of form, Liverpool were thumped 4-1 by Manchester City in February of this year.
Star stopper Alisson dropped TWO clangers in a rare off game for the Brazilian.
And after the game, Klopp blamed Alisson’s COLD FEET for the defeat.
Klopp said: “We can’t hide (the mistakes), we don’t have to talk around it. It’s true as well.
“We didn’t give a lot of options, especially in the first goal. In the second goal he just mis-hit the ball.
“There’s no real reason, maybe he had cold feet. It sounds funny but could be.
“Ali has saved our life plenty of times, today he made two mistakes. That’s how it is.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
