Jurgen Klopp has shared what he said to Steven Gerrard at the final whistle after Liverpool’s win over Aston Villa.
The Reds ran out 1-0 winners thanks to a second half Mohamed Salah penalty, though the Villans thought they should have had a spot-kick themselves late on after Alisson made contact with Danny Ings in the box.
Referee Stuart Attwell made a number of controversial decisions throughout the match but Klopp revealed there was never any chance of him falling out with Gerrard over any incidents during the game as the Liverpool legend made his Anfield return.
“He said congratulations and I said thank you,” the German told reporters. “We won the game and it’s not about (what) we have to talk about.
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“Nothing will come between him and me. Around the games we are both really focused. That’s the idea of this game.
“You can be best friends with somebody but when you play against each other you want to beat them anyway. I had this situation with David Wagner for example in the past.
“The whole fuss around it was absolutely right but there’s one person for who it isn’t so easy and that was Stevie. He is still a Liverpool legend, we cannot change that now and we shouldn’t try to.
“They did really well and obviously fought really hard for a result here today, pushed by Stevie. It’s all fine and I like that at the end we got the three points anyway.”
Klopp also praised the performance of fourth official Graham Scott as the German played down any heated interactions he had with him during the 90 minutes.
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“Not discussions, not discussions. Talks!” he insisted when quizzed.
“I have to say it was an incredible performance of the fourth official. I felt really well.
“He cannot make any decisions. It’s not that he will whistle, he helps the ref from time to time. He sits directly in front of us and was good in that as well.
“But we had conversations, no arguments.”
