A former Premier League star has pitched into Jurgen Klopp's turf war by claiming that Cardiff City's playing surface actually helped Liverpool.
Reds boss Klopp blasted that the Welsh side's pitch was “dangerous” after his side's 2-0 victory on Sunday, declaring: “I spoke about that last year at West Brom when people called me a bad loser. I don’t even remember if we lost that day or drew. It’s just football.
“Dry pitches are dangerous, for players injury-wise. You run and when you stop, it can happen. You know why people leave a pitch dry so I don’t have to say that.
“I don’t know exactly why the pitch was dry – the ball doesn’t roll that quickly. It’s difficult for the fluency of the game. If you ask footballers what they want, they’d say a wet pitch, let’s go, let’s pass, let’s play football. You can slide better, everything is better.”
ECHO LFC correspondent James Pearce tweeted after the game : “Bit of a delay on those sprinklers. Pitch now getting watered 2hrs after the game finished”, while one of his predecessors Chris Bascombe, now of the Telegraph observed: “It was Warnock’s prerogative to maximise his team’s chances, welcoming Liverpool onto a pitch so dry it could have doubled up as the set of Lawrence of Arabia by full-time.”
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However, former Premier League player and manager Gus Poyet believes that the playing surface was actually beneficial.
Speaking to former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher , he told Sky Sports' Monday Night Football: “The quality was outstanding. It’s very difficult.
“You prefer the ball in the air or completely right on the floor.
“I think it helped that the pitch was dry. If it’s wet, it would bounce [quicker] and make it even more difficult to hit it. It was spot on.”
