Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has responded to Jurgen Klopp’s penalty jibe, saying that managers who keep bringing it up are only trying to influence referees.
Klopp spoke about United’s penalty record unprompted after his team lost 1-0 against Southampton in the Premier League on Monday.
“I hear now that Manchester United had more penalties in two years than I had in five and a half years,” the Liverpool manager said. “I’ve no idea if that’s my fault, or how that can happen.”
United have had 11 penalties in all competitions this campaign, with six of those coming in the league, while the Reds have only been awarded five in the league.
But Klopp was likely talking more about the fact United have won 42 in all competitions since Solskjaer became manager in December 2018, compared to Liverpool winning 19 in the same time.
“I don’t count how many penalties they have, so if they want to spend time on worrying about when we get fouled in the box, I don’t spend time on that,” Solskjaer replied when asked about other managers’ fascination with United being awarded penalties.
Klopp isn’t the first manager to discuss about United’s penalty record.
Frank Lampard brought the issue up in his pre-match press conference ahead of last year’s FA Cup semi-final and Solskjaer says that could have impacted Mike Dean’s decision-making during the match.
“I can’t talk on behalf of other managers, why they say things like this,” Solskjaer said. “Obviously I felt it worked last year in the semi in the FA Cup because Frank spoke about it and we had a nailed-on penalty that we should have had that we didn’t get.
“So maybe it’s a way of influencing referees. I don’t know, but I don’t worry about that. When they foul our players it’s a penalty. It’s just when it’s inside the box.”
