Jürgen Klopp has apologised for his emotional outburst against Tony Pulis and West Bromwich Albion but admitted his touchline behaviour is not going to change. The Liverpool manager also insisted he would repeat his post-match salute to the Kop in future, describing it as an easier way of saying thank you than sending letters.
The Liverpool manager was involved in several confrontations with his Albion counterpart during last Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Anfield, notably after Divock Origi’s late equaliser and on the final whistle when he refused to shake hands with Pulis. He also accused the visitors of being interested only in set pieces and long balls, a slight that prompted a sardonic response on Friday from Pulis, who claimed his team played only three longer passes than Liverpool during the 99-minute contest.
Klopp, however, wants to draw a line under the controversy and believes the managerial dispute should be confined to the technical area. “For the whole situation with Tony Pulis around the game I have to say sorry,” the Liverpool manager said. “I can only say sorry for what I said during the game. But it’s emotional. I am emotional during the game and sometimes during the game you say things you would not say in normal life. With him, I think, it is the same so it is absolutely no problem. It is after the game and it is finished.”
Despite the contrition, the 48-year-old concedes there is little prospect of his touchline demeanour becoming more composed in time. Klopp added: “Up until now I couldn’t stop it. Not my coaching, I don’t want to stop my coaching, but of course it was a difficult game, a difficult situation. I think Tony Pulis knows himself that he is not the easiest coach in the world, he is an emotional coach too, so there were a few words from me.
“It is really no problem and usually after a game I would give him my hand and say ‘Sorry for this’ but I was not in that situation. Then we had the situation on the pitch and then the situation with the assistant coach [Albion’s Mark O’Connor] which was not OK because I was not cooled down.
“What can I say? Sometimes you need a few seconds more to cool down. If I meet both of them now I could easily say sorry if they needed and we could talk about everything. There is no lack of respect. Everything is OK from my side if not from the other side.”
That would appear to be the case with Pulis, who insisted at Anfield on Sunday that he had no issue with Klopp’s confrontational behaviour, clearly aggrieved at the long-ball criticism. “I think it was disappointing but he’s got his opinions and he can say what he wants,” the Albion manager said. “We apologise we actually played three longer passes in 99 minutes than Liverpool did in that game.”
Pulis was also unimpressed by Klopp’s arm-waving salute to the Kop after the game and believes the overall reaction was a diversion from Liverpool’s result against a team that cost significantly less to build. He added: “If I had a team that was worth £200m playing against a team that was worth less than £20m and we never won that game I’d be doing my best to divert it away from the fact that I had 10 times more value on the pitch than my opposition number had and couldn’t win the game. I don’t want to say anything else. We’ve got a big game Saturday [at home to Bournemouth], a game that we think will be more difficult than the Liverpool game.”
Klopp explained at the time his gesture was to thank Liverpool supporters for the best atmosphere he had experienced during his brief Anfield reign.
The Liverpool manager, who lost Dejan Lovren to a knee injury sustained against Albion and is without James Milner for Sunday’s trip to Watford with a calf problem, insisted on Friday: “In that situation I would do it again.”
He elaborated: “I’m not here to bring German traditions to England or anything like that. It was the moment for me, that’s all. It was not for us about ‘How can we say thank you to the fans? Send letters?’ You can only react in the moment, directly after the game.
“I didn’t get the feeling that the Liverpool fans in the stadium had a problem with what we did. It is not important for everyone to understand what we are doing. It is for us. It is for Liverpool fans, it is for the relationship of the team. It was only a thank you. Nothing else.
“If someone tells me it’s a problem I won’t do it. If it is an opinion I am interested in, I won’t do it. But I don’t know enough possibilities of another way to say thank you. That’s all.”
