Klopp Praises Salah, Accepts Red Card From Referee [VIDEO]

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp praised forward Mohamed Salah's display as the Egyptian's goal sealed a 1-0 Premier League victory over Manchester City on Sunday while he was sent off by the referee.

The German tactician was given his marching orders after protesting furiously at the lineman close to the dugout after a foul on Salah by Bernando Silva.

His anger at the assistant referee just metres from the incident, saw him dismissed from the touchline.

What Klopp said to the officials remains unclear but it was enough to see him instantly dismissed.

 

“The red card was my fault. I went over the top in the moment, but I don’t think I was disrespectful to anyone,” said the German.

“When you look at the pictures back, I know myself at 55 years old the way I look in these moments, (it) is already worth a red card.

“I lost it in that moment and that is not OK, but (there is) a little bit of an excuse. I will like to mention how can you not whistle that foul? How on earth is that possible?”

But occasionally that was the wrong decision in a high-tempo, high-stakes game.

“I heard now that people said it was Anfield that made the VAR decision,” added Klopp.

“With a foul on Mo, Anfield had no chance to make any impact. It’s a foul on Fabinho (in the lead-up to Foden’s goal), I think we agree on that. Is it not enough, to pull somebody down?

“Then Ali (goalkeeper Alisson Becker) has the hand on the ball (before Haaland frees it).

“So there was already the first moment where Pep and I were pretty animated but actually for the same reason to be 100 percent honest.

“We were not arguing with each other, not at all. Then that situation (with Salah) I just had the perfect view and the linesman, and you can imagine we are 1-0 up and we have a free-kick there or a counter-attack there.

“That is pretty much a 100 percent difference and that was when I snapped and again I am not proud of that, but it happened.”

Klopp now turned his attention to praise his talisman Salah whose brilliance won the match for Liverpool.

"Absolutely outstanding," Klopp told reporters. "Obviously he was one of two strikers in the centre together with Roberto Firmino. The goal was world-class."

Klopp said Salah, who typically plays in a wider role, was unlucky not to have scored earlier.

"The situation immediately before was really unlucky that he didn't score there already. Apart from that, good on the ball, a constant threat in behind, working extremely hard, an outstanding performance," he added.

Salah, who was also deployed more centrally when he scored the fastest hat-trick in Champions League history as Liverpool beat Rangers 7-1 last Wednesday, said he hoped the two wins would kick-start their season.

"Hopefully it gives us more confidence so we start winning games. The last few weeks, as you saw, we were not on our best," Salah said.

"We started already from the last game and this game as well we won so we need to carry on."