On the heels of a 2-0 victory over Sheffield United, Liverpool now looks towards their match with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. Despite having an exhausting schedule, Liverpool still manages to outplay the other teams this season.
They are 2nd on the table in the Premier League and have to play in the Europa League every other week. The recent round of 16 early qualification eased their workload.
However, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has made his feelings known time and time again about constantly being scheduled to play the Saturday early kick-off (12:30 PM) matches.
Last night during the post-match interview with Jurgen Klopp, Marcus Buckland of Amazon Prime Video was discussing Liverpool and their upcoming matches, but it became an awkward conversation once the reporter joked about how they got paired up to another early kick-off game against Palace.
Jurgen Klopp was visibly offended by the joke and his demeanour changed from then onward. Here is how their conversation went like.
Buckland: “You got to Crystal Palace in your favorite kick-off time?”
Klopp: “That’s really brave to make a joke about that. “We go home, I don’t know exactly what time we will get home, we will arrive, maybe 1 am-2 am tonight and then play again. We have two sessions.”
Klopp: “I realize that you don’t understand it as well, even when you work in football, so why should I explain again?
“If you make a joke of that you are completely ignorant. But it’s good, football is entertainment and it’s all good.”
Buckland: “I don’t mean to be disrespectful.”
It’s very clear that Klopp was not pleased with the reporter’s jokes and made him very uneasy with his unexpected response. Early kick-offs are not giving him enough time to rest players and causing more injuries due to the excessive workload in short spaces of matches.
Joel Matip is the latest Liverpool player to get an injury and will be out with ACL injury for the rest of the season. No wonder Klopp thought the joke was in poor taste. Whether Buckland meant it as an innocent joke or not is irrelevant, it was ignorant according to Klopp. He felt disappointed that someone who works in the field of football would be that ignorant.
While most fans stood with Klopp, some tried to justify the reporter’s action by saying they meant no harm or malice.
Klopp is well known for speaking his mind, whether that’s about a referee’s decision, issues with the fourth official or comments made by reporters or pundits. So, this response straight back to the reporter, face to face doesn’t shock anyone. Buckland immediately apologized for the joke, but Klopp wasn’t convinced.
Klopp is very protective of his club and its players. He doesn’t stand for any sort of disrespect towards the club or its players. Buckland tried his best to backtrack his comments, but the damage was already done.
Buckland probably tried to get a chuckle or two from Klopp, but his calculations were way off. Whether Klopp will ever give Buckland another interview remains to be seen.
