Liverpool boss Klopp left baffled as he raises Salah complaint to FA

Liverpool boss Klopp considering apology to officials

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp admitted his surprise at how Mohamed Salah is rarely given free-kicks as he called for more protection for his players. The German has recently been in hot water with the FA for celebrating in the fourth official’s face during his side’s 4-3 victory over Tottenham on Sunday, before accusing referee Paul Tierney of having an agenda against his club – before then backtracking on those claims.

The FA have charged Klopp with improper conduct after questioning Tierney’s integrity, and now he has risked further backlash from the governing body by bringing up Salah. Klopp’s frustration on the touchline stemmed from fouls that he felt should have been awarded to the Egyptian, then later he was surprised at the numbers regarding fouls against the Reds’ star man.

Despite his constant threat down the right flank, Salah has only been fouled 31 times in the Premier League this season and a total of 55 players draw fouls more often than the 30-year-old. When told of those numbers, Klopp admitted that he was surprised.

“Yes these stats [for Salah fouls] are surprising,” he said. “I know them as well and I have to say they are surprising. He has the ball constantly at his feet, Mo is a dribbler and has scored an insane number of goals over the years and it is like this.

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“How Mo deals with all of this I don’t know. He is absolutely exceptional but for me at the moment, it’s not that it is again [a foul] on Mo, it is just obvious. Bernardo Silva’s was a clear foul on Mo and this situation [on Sunday] is a clear no-foul. With the Silva decision taken into account and now this foul, it is the same punishment. I don’t understand it.

“If nothing happens after that then it is done and dusted but we concede a goal 35 seconds after this incident. I just didn’t want to find an excuse for my reaction, just to explain it. It was like: there’s a foul, there’s a free-kick, there’s a goal. And pretty much directly after, we scored, so that was pretty much the emotion I was in. And now we see and I hope you realise I am in a completely different mood.”

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Klopp admitted he has spoken to his fellow head coaches over fouls and his reactions, which have been condemned by the FA. The German could face his second touchline ban of the season, having missed one game in November for confronting an official during his side’s win over Manchester City in October.

“In this situation it is really tricky to deal with and you had similar conversations with other managers,” Klopp added. “It is not to excuse our behaviour or whatever but you never had a real situation when you are in it.

“You (the media) write about it but you were never in the situation to feel it. I cannot describe it because it just happens more or less and the emotions are going up and down. If all managers are going up and down like they are on the touchline that would be a crazy life.

“So we are not because that is an extreme situation and this had led to that [incident] and it was still the wrong reaction, of course, but that is it.”

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