Jurgen Klopp insists Liverpool and Man City don’t need to be “best friends” despite concerns over their rivalry, with Sunday’s win now “overshadowed.”
The fallout of the Reds’ 1-0 win has been largely negative, with the media amplifying tensions between the two clubs after a series of incidents at Anfield.
On Monday, there were even suggestions from an unnamed Man City source that Klopp’s comments before the game, regarding the free-spending power of the Manchester club, were “borderline xenophobic.”
City fans sang vile Hillsborough chants throughout the game, while there were claims of coins thrown at Pep Guardiola and damage to their team bus, though they are yet to report any offences despite contact from Merseyside Police.
That has led to fears of a dangerous tension between the two clubs, but speaking in his pre-West Ham press conference on Tuesday, Klopp played down the situation.
“I’m not sure we have to be best friends with other clubs, to be honest,” he said.
“I don’t think anybody wants to be best friends with us. I never heard about that at least. It’s completely normal competition.
“Again, it started here with a question, I answered it and all the rest was made of it.
“I know what I thought when I said it, and I thought I put it all into perspective and said how much I respect everything that they’re doing.
“Then obviously it was still not right for some!
“But I think the most important thing is, I thought as a club and as a team, together with our supporters, we showed an incredible performance on Sunday, incredible performance.
“Yes, and if something happens, if one guys throws a coin, one fan I think, then it’s a massive mistake, definitely. They will get punished.
“After the game, if something happens there, it’s one supporter or maybe two supporters.
“It looks like it gets overshadowed, because it was an absolutely brilliant performance against an incredibly strong side in a super-intense game.”
Klopp was shown a red card for his furious reaction to a clear foul from Bernardo Silva on Mo Salah being overlooked by referee Anthony Taylor and linesman Gary Beswick.
That, he feels, came due to the officials being happy to wave fouls on.
“We have to save the players as well. That’s a really big, really important job as well that the referees have,” he added.
“You could see how the game developed, the players always tried a bit more and a bit more and a bit more, and in the end: ‘Wow, how can you do that?’.
“There was another game this season which I watched where it was similar, and it ended up with red cards for the coaches as well.
“It was Chelsea–Tottenham. I watched the game and thought, in front of the television, ‘oh my god, what’s going on here?’. It was super intense.
“No excuse. I don’t use that as an excuse for me, but that was just the game.
“How I said, I thought the performance was outstanding. Individually, as a unit, it was absolutely great.
“Then after the game, all the talk goes to what I said and what I did and what people make of it.
“I don’t think that should be the case, but obviously I cannot change that.”
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