Jose Mourinho has aimed another dig at Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp and his backroom staff by saying he was forced into making a substitution due to their behaviour on the touchline.
They exchanged heated words after the Reds’ late 2-1 victory over Tottenham, and Mourinho criticised Klopp’s actions during the game, saying: “If I behave the same way he does on the touchline, I do not stay there.”
Early in the second half of the game, Giovani Lo Celso received a yellow card for a late challenge on Andy Robertson, and he was then replaced by Lucas Moura ten minutes later.
And in quotes by the Evening Standard, Mourinho said he felt he had no choice but to make the substitution due to the pressure Klopp & his staff were putting on the referee.
“With this yellow card and the behaviour of these guys they have on the touchline, putting incredible pressure on referees I feared for a possible second yellow card,” he said.
“And Gio was playing exactly in front of their bench in an area that very dangerous. So I was afraid of the yellow card and I had to take him off.”
There appears to be no love lost between the two managers, and Klopp said he was shocked when Mourinho told him his opinion that the best team had lost the game.
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“He wasn’t happy because he told me the better team lost – and I thought he was joking! But he wasn’t. So that’s it,” he told the BBC.
The result means Liverpool are now three points clear of Tottenham at the top of the table, and their next game is a trip to Crystal Palace on Saturday, while Mourinho’s side will play Leicester on Sunday.
