Klopp accused of ‘inciting’ Liverpool fans as boss is told off by Souness – ‘you can’t do that!’

Lewis Oldham 17 Oct 2022 12:53 PM

Graeme Souness has accused Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp of “inciting” the club’s supporters against Man City as the “crowd were really up for it”.

Liverpool and Manchester City clashed in an enthralling game at Anfield on Sunday in the Premier League.

Anthony Taylor let a lot of potential fouls go and this made for a fast-paced and high-octane 90 minutes of football.

It also meant that tensions were running high on the touchline and it boiled over in the second-half when a free-kick was not given when Bernardo Silva dragged down Mohamed Salah.

Klopp subsequently marched down the touchline to confront the assistant referee. The manager was sent off by Taylor after he hurled abuse at the linesman.

The atmosphere was ramped up after Man City’s disallowed goal and this went up a notch when Salah netted what proved to be the winner for the hosts.

Souness has now warned Klopp that he has a “responsibility” and it was the right decision to send him off.

“There’s a responsibility for managers, and it’s rich coming from me as I was losing my head in every game,” Souness told talkSPORT.

“There are parameters, you can’t go in the face of the linesman like Jurgen Klopp did yesterday when he’s trying to do his job.

“He got sent off correctly in my opinion.

“You can’t do that, that’s inciting the crowd to act in a different way.”

He added: “People will say it’s a great atmosphere in the stadium. The Liverpool supporters were fantastic. It’s not because of the songs they were singing, they were challenging every challenge the players made.

“They were challenging everything. They made it very difficult for City.

“But I think the referee, by and large, had a good game yesterday. The Liverpool crowd were up for it.”

Ex-Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan meanwhile has called for managers to “calm down”.

“When you behave that way, you get sent off. I watched him [Souness] on the touchline years ago and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone go at an official like I saw him do when we played Blackburn at home in my first year [as Crystal Palace owner],” Jordan said.

“The bottom line is you kind of half want it. You want the balance to be right.

“That does not conflate a manager screaming at an official and getting sent off and all the consequences with that, to someone walking up to a referee and punching his face in.

“We can make it that way and say it’s at the beginning of the journey, but people have to be responsible for their individual behaviour.

“I know it’s not the greatest look and I don’t want it either. I want them to calm themselves down at times.”

Liverpool Graeme Souness