Klopp furious over Bournemouth comments and wants revenge

Jurgen Klopp: Angry

Jurgen Klopp: Liverpool undoing all their own hard work

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has vented his anger over the comments made by Bournemouth’s Steve Cook after the Cherries’ dramatic 4-3 win over the Reds last weekend.

Liverpool were 2-0 and 3-1 up on the south coast but eventually succumbed to a last-gasp defeat and afterwards Bournemouth defender Cook claimed the hosts had targeted Reds keeper Loris Karius and said he was Klopp’s weak link.

Cook told TalkSport: “I’ve got to be honest, we did. We felt he was under a lot of pressure – obviously, playing for Liverpool you’ve got to be a very strong character. We did target him, we tried to pressure him and get as many shots at him as possible. Obviously, we didn’t get that many shots off in the game but we did target him as a weakness in the Liverpool side.”

Klopp was magnanimous in defeat at the Vitality Stadium despite conceding three goals in the last 15 minutes, but after hearing Cook’s comments the German revealed his anger.

“Actually, that’s one of the worst things I ever heard in my life,” said Klopp. “That the guy who won the game – I don’t know who it was – thinks he needs to say something like this after the game. I am really looking forward to playing Bournemouth again because of this.

“Win the game, have respect for the player of the other team and then [gestures to close his mouth]. I thought: ‘Really, what did I say?’ I don’t care what he thought, I don’t care what anyone said before the game.

“If they thought before the game that Loris Karius is a weakness then I don’t know which game they were looking at. The game before against Sunderland he saved our life in three or four situations. Maybe they watched games from Mainz.”

Loris Karius Liverpool

Klopp has been forced to defend Karius, the goalkeeper he signed from Mainz for £4.7million, and is set to keep faith with him against West Ham.

“We spoke about it, we watched the goals, and not of course to say: ‘What did you do here? What did you do there?.

“You need players who fit the style. We are a footballing side and sometimes we use the goalkeeper for this. We need him to make quick decisions. Don’t think I’m pretty special in this – I think all coaches would look for the same. Of course, you don’t want to concede goals and that is all about the defending of the whole team,” said Klopp.

“Sometimes you need the goalkeeper and he made a lot of good saves in the last few games. And then this not-so-good save in the last minute against Bournemouth.

“That didn’t feel too good but it is important for your development that when you have a situation like this that you feel the criticism – the right criticism, not the criticism from people who want to send you out of the country or something. We are quite cool in this situation so we were all responsible for this defeat.”