Jeff Stelling was ridiculed by his Soccer Saturday guests after suggesting Jurgen Klopp has been doing too much media work during Liverpool’s slump.
Last season’s domestic cup kings have endured a miserable start to the new campaign and currently sit in ninth place after consecutive defeats against strugglers Nottingham Forest and Leeds United.
Despite Liverpool’s struggles, Klopp took time out of his already hectic schedule to put on a coaching masterclass for Sky Sports earlier this week but Stelling believes the German’s time would have been better spent preparing for Sunday’s match against Tottenham.
‘Jurgen Klopp’s very generous with his time for the media they are down in ninth place in the table, they’ve just lost against Leeds, should he be spending so much time with the media?’ asked the Soccer Saturday presenter.
A panel which comprised of Paul Merson, Clinton Morrison, Michael Dawson and Alan McInally scoffed at Stelling’s suggestion.
After deriding his host, former Arsenal star Merson asked: ‘What do you want him to do, sit in his front room moaning?’
An indignant Stelling dug his heels and argued that Klopp already had enough on his plate and that Liverpool fans would be not seeing so much of him on their TV screens.
‘He’s Liverpool’s coach isn’t he? He’s had a game on Saturday, a game in midweek as well, he’s got media commitments galore on Friday which he will do.
‘I just wonder if Liverpool fans feel that they should be seeing a little less of him?’
Klopp, meanwhile, used his pre-match press conference on Friday to question why journalists have left it until now to provide such opposition to the Qatar World Cup amid a spate of injuries which will see a number of high-profile stars miss the tournament which starts in three weeks’ time.
‘These problems were so clear,’ said the Liverpool boss. ‘They were so clear and nobody mentioned it for one time until three or four weeks before the World Cup.
‘Now all of a sudden a player gets injured and you say, “Oh, they cannot play the World Cup”.
‘So this specific problem, that players who were late injured in a season cannot play the World Cup, is not new. So after a long season it happens everywhere in the world.
‘But now, starting the World Cup a week after the last game, “Oh, that’s a bigger risk”. Crazy. Nobody cares about us, how we deal with it.
‘And you, you ask me now the question and if I give you all the answers and these kind of things. What do you think I should do? Ask the players before Southampton – or before Derby [in the Carabao Cup] – “Wanna play?”
‘What’s the situation? Asking a question is one, but we are all guilty – and you more than I am guilty – for letting it happen. Letting it happen in the first place.
‘And now it’s happened, and now we have the situation and that’s it and we have to go along with it. And for the players who get injured and cannot play it is a disaster, but how can we change that now?’
MORE : Antonio Conte fires reminder to Jurgen Klopp: ‘We cost Liverpool the Premier League title’
MORE : Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp snaps at reporter over World Cup injuries question
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