Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp accuses Brentford of “stretching the rules”

The Liverpool boss spoke after the 3-1 defeat to Brentford on how Liverpool suffered from The Bees’ tactics.

Jurgen Klopp sat there, and it must have been cold, but he was breathing fire. Cuddled into his chair by a big winter, Liverpool branded coat that sat above a Liverpool branded hoodie and his eyes slurping out from under the peak of his Liverpool cap, the, *checks notes* Liverpool manager flicked his fiery tongue out towards the presumably frozen air particles around him, melting them with his words.

He was speaking after his side’s 3-1 defeat to Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium, a damaging result that saw the home team have what felt like 8 goals ruled out for offside, two for every corner that they threatened Liverpool with, Frank’s team going akimbo style with the weaponry.

Liverpool’s rocky road continues

Klopp’s side have not had things their own way so far this season, and The Reds currently sit in 6th on 28 points, just two ahead of Brentford after their defeat on 2 January. The club, it seems, did not judge the departure of Sadio Mané in the correct way, allowing the forward to go to Bayern Munich over the summer break, replacing the AFCON winner with Uruguayan striker, Darwin Núñez. The forward has been hit and miss for Liverpool, and is quickly becoming a meme of inefficiency in Premier League fan circles, often being singled out as the cause for Liverpool’s lack of presence up front this campaign.

What did Jurgen Klopp say about Brentford?

After the game, a tetchy Klopp said “when I say ‘they stretched the rules’ in offensive set pieces, don’t get me wrong, that’s smart, but they do. If you single out all the situations you would see 5 fouls, but because it’s so chaotic, nobody sees it in the end. So that’s what they do, and it’s really good - it’s really, really good. And how they react [to] different things, how they play against us like this, and to play against other teams playing football: it’s a fantastic job [Thomas Frank] is doing here.”

Liverpool’s next game is at home to Wolves on Saturday 7 January in the FA Cup before a tricky away trip to Roberto Di Zerbi’s Brighton in the Premier League a week later. They will face Real Madrid in the Champions League on 21 February at Anfield.