Jurgen Klopp blames broadcasters for James Milner injury in another Liverpool scheduling rant

ByEurosport

Updated 28/11/2020 at 18:43 GMT

Jurgen Klopp followed up his disagreement with Sky Sports by arguing with BT Sport interviewer Des Kelly over the Premier League scheduling pile-up. The Liverpool manager has made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the fixture list in the compressed 2020/21 season, and made his point strongly after Liverpool were held by Brighton on Saturday.

Jurgen Klopp had an argument with BT reporter Des Kelly about the scheduling of their matches during the Covid-19 pandemic after Liverpool were held to a draw by Brighton on Saturday.

Klopp had already made his feelings known about the decision to have Liverpool play in the Saturday lunchtime slot after they had been in action in the Champions League on Wednesday. Kelly argued he should take the issue up with his own club's executives and not the broadcasters televising the matches.

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Asked by Kelly about whether James Milner's injury, which led to him going off in the 74th minute, was a hamstring, Klopp said: “Yeah. Congratulations."

When Kelly asked if the German was blaming him personally for the injury, Klopp said: "No, but you work for them. Hamstring, surprise, and they had injuries as well. But ask Chris Wilder how we can avoid that."

Sheffield United manager Wilder had been critical of Klopp, and other managers of big clubs, demanding five substitutes be allowed again in the league, along with other issues.

"He’s a world-class manager and a world-class politician, who cares about Liverpool," Wilder had said. "That’s all he cares about."

Klopp hits back at Wilder over five-sub rule

Klopp said that the decision to put Liverpool on early Saturday duty put players at risk.

"After Wednesday, Saturday 12:30 is really, really dangerous for the players. You don’t do that often," he said.

Kelly argued that Liverpool's officials had agreed with other Premier League clubs on the contract for broadcasting slots for games.

Klopp responded that the special situation with a compressed schedule this season required a different approach.

'It's not a penalty' - Henderson fumes at VAR equaliser

Klopp wasn't the only Liverpool representative to have some complaints after Saturday's lunchtime kick-off. Jordan Henderson was left fuming after Brighton were awarded a last-minute penalty that earned them a 1-1 draw.

Pascal Gross scored a stoppage-time penalty to earn the hosts a point as VAR once again took centre stage.

Liverpool were left stunned when referee Stuart Attwell consulted a pitch-side monitor before awarding the spot-kick which Gross converted after a review of Andy Robertson’s challenge on Danny Welbeck.

Liverpool captain Henderson was adamant it was not a penalty.

"It was ours," he told BT Sport. "It should be three points, in my opinion. I’ve seen the replay. Who would be happy? It’s not a pen. It feels like we’re standing here every week and discussing incidents. I don’t want to get into trouble, but for me it’s not a penalty.

"Danny Welbeck said to me it wasn’t a penalty. There were four or five of them who felt it wasn’t a penalty.

"To overturn it, it has to be clear and obvious. Is that a clear and obvious penalty, to go to the screen and overturn it? Obviously the referees know better than us, but I thought the lads were brilliant today and deserve the three points.”

Liverpool also had two goals - scored by Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane - ruled out for offside, but manager Jurgen Klopp admitted both decisions were correct, along with the late penalty.

"The offside, it was really close with Mo, I think - but we are used to armpits, and club badges, so if it's a toe then it's obviously offside. And the other one with Sadio was clear.

"The penalty, it is how it is. I think the decisions were right, yes."

Additional reporting from Reuters.

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