LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, October 1, 2016: Liverpool's manager Jürgen Klopp before the FA Premier League match against Swansea City at the Liberty Stadium. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

Klopp: The Neville brothers don’t like Liverpool – I don’t listen to them!

Jurgen Klopp has responded to criticism of goalkeeper Loris Karius from TV pundits, saying “I don’t listen to them.”

Klopp has remained staunch in his backing of Karius, who joined Liverpool from Mainz 05 in a deal worth £4.7 million in the summer.

The 23-year-old has played just 11 games for the Reds so far, but is already being subject to widespread criticism after a handful of shaky performances.

This has, typically, stemmed from ex-players now working as pundits, and responding to comments from Jamie Carragher, Phil Neville and Gary Neville in particular, Klopp was in a bullish mood.

“The pundits are former players who forgot completely how it felt when they got criticised,” said Klopp.

“Especially the Neville brothers. I have to say the one who was the manager, he obviously should know that too much criticism never helps.

“But he’s not interested in helping a Liverpool player I can imagine, but that makes the things he says not more sensible.

“He showed he struggled with a job to judge players, why do we let them talk about players on television? The only thing I can do is not listen to them.

“I’m sure Carra doesn’t speak too positively about United players and obviously the Neville brothers don’t like Liverpool.

“If they can cause bigger problems than we already have, I think they’ll try it—that’s all. Now you have your headline!

“You can tell [Neville] I’m not on Twitter, so if he wants to tell me something, Twitter doesn’t help.”


Klopp’s position on Neville, who spent four months as manager of Valencia before being sacked, having won just three of his 16 Liga games in charge, is likely to fuel the debate further.

But the 49-year-old certainly struck on a pertinent point, himself able to put his ideas into practice, unlike Neville.

Having moved to sign Karius and install him as his first-choice goalkeeper, Klopp has underlined his stance confidently, and a handful of poor performances are unlikely to change his mind.

While Klopp’s predecessor, Brendan Rodgers, could be swayed by media pressure at times, the former Borussia Dortmund manager is not looking to pander to their focus.

This is a refreshing take on the situation, with Klopp instead purely focussed on ensuring Karius is able to respond well.

Klopp’s viewpoint is unlikely to change, and despite concerns over Karius’ displays in recent weeks, this is how it should be, with the Liverpool manager in a unique position and, crucially, proven in his ability to move forward in this role.

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