Gary Lineker and Danny Murphy have accused Jurgen Klopp of “deflection” after the Liverpool manager blasted Hamza Choudhury for his challenge on Mohamed Salah on Saturday.
Salah was forced off the field after the Leicester midfielder tackled the Egypt international in the closing stages of Liverpool’s dramatic 2-1 win at Anfield.
After the match, Klopp said that Choudhury needs to “calm down” and suggested that the Foxes youngster should have been handed his marching orders by referee Chris Kavanagh.
Kavanagh did award Liverpool with a controversial late penalty that ended up winning them the game, leading to Lineker and Murphy both claiming that Klopp was only making an issue out of Choudhury’s challenge to avoid talking about Sadio Mane’s theatrics in the box.
“Jurgen Klopp was complaining about Choudhury’s tackle and said it was a red card offence,” said Lineker on BBC One’s Match of the Day on Saturday night. “A bit of deflection, maybe?”
Murphy replied: “I think you’re right Gary, deflection is the word for me, from the penalty decision.
“It could have been a foul but Choudhury’s tenacious, he’s come on, he’s running back in the last moments of the game.
“He actually catches his ankle with his thigh. He’s not deliberately trying to hurt his ankle, he goes for the ball.
“It’s disappointing if Salah’s hurt himself of course and we wish him well if he’s got a bad ankle.
“But we see one of those tackles almost every game, late in the game.”
OPINION
Choudhury is a bit of a live wire in the tackle. He’s already sidelined Newcastle’s Matt Ritchie for a hard challenge on him earlier in the season and now this incident has left Salah with what is hopefully not a serious injury. Salah should be ok and it seemed more like a knock on his ankle more than anything else but managers are always going to be angry at opposition players when they have a reputation for hard tackles and causing injuries. Klopp is unlikely to have thought ‘I’m going to be going into this interview with the aim of deflecting away from the penalty incident’. He’s a passionate man who says what is on his mind. He was angry about that challenge and why not? He’s defending one of his players and getting to air his anger on television. Choudhury did not mean to hurt Salah and as Murphy says, you see challenges like that in almost every game. It is just a shame that Salah’s ankle got caught underneath the midfielder’s ankle. A yellow card was perhaps the correct decision.
