Jurgen Klopp hits out at Gary and Phil Neville after former Manchester United duo criticise Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has launched a scathing attack on former Manchester United duo Gary and Phil Neville and questioned the validity of the former’s opinions given his unsuccessful spell as manager of Valencia.
Gary Neville had criticised under-fire Reds goalkeeper Loris Karius, a £4.7m summer signing from Mainz, in a newspaper article on Friday before brother Phil expressed his own misgivings while working as a television pundit on Sunday.
Former Liverpool centre-half Jamie Carragher was also critical of Karius in the wake of his jittery performance against Bournemouth last week, although it was the Nevilles who were the target of Klopp’s ire.
“The pundits, former players most of them, forgot completely how it felt when they got criticised,” said Klopp. “Especially the Neville brothers; the one who was the manager, he obviously should know that too much criticism never helps.
“He is not interested in helping a Liverpool player I can imagine, but that makes the things he says not make more sense. He showed he struggled with the job to judge players so why do we let him talk about players on the television?
“I don’t listen to them. I am pretty sure Carra [Carragher] doesn’t speak too positively about Man United players. Obviously the Neville brothers don’t like Liverpool, I have no problem and if they can cause bigger problems than we have already they have tried.
“By the way, you can tell him [Gary] I am not on Twitter so if he wants to tell me something Twitter doesn’t help.”
Klopp, whose side play Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium on Wednesday, refused to discuss Karius after the 23-year-old’s performance during Sunday’s 2-2 draw with West Ham at Anfield again fell under the microscope.
“Whatever I would say about this would create headlines,” added Klopp. “The good things, the bad things, and I am absolutely not interested in creating headlines so you can write what you want.”