J. Klopp
'I don't remember him as a mentality monster' - Klopp bites back at Agbonlahor over unfair Man Utd criticsm
Ed Mackey
12:41 GMT+3 19/08/2022
The criticism of the Red Devils has been so harsh that even Klopp has jumped to their defence
Jurgen Klopp has hit back at Gabby Agbonlahor over his excessive criticism of Manchester United following their poor start to the season. Defeats against Brighton and Brentford have brought all the wrong headlines for Erik ten Hag and his side, with the ex-Aston Villa forward leading much of the negativity. Agbonlahor has built a relationship as quite a divisive figure during his time as a pundit at talkSPORT since retiring from his 13-year playing career.
Klopp is clearly not a fan of his analysis and, in his pre-match press conference ahead of Liverpool's trip to Old Trafford, he made his feelings towards the former England international extremely clear.
What did Klopp say about Agbonlahor's Man Utd criticism?
Discussing Manchester United's heavy defeat at Brentford last weekend, Klopp was keen to heap praise on Thomas Frank's side before outlining his disgust at the punditry offered by Agbonlahor.
"For United it is clear, it was not a nice week for United after the Brentford game," claimed the Reds boss. "But we forget in these moments how good Brentford is, to be honest.
"It was that bad, I watched the first half here then I drove home and considered listening to talkSPORT and Gabby Agbonlahor. He lost against us 6-0 in my first year, I cannot remember him as a mentality monster on the pitch. But what he said about United on that show, I was close to calling in! I was close to calling in to tell him 'you have forgot completely that you have been a player'.
"It was unbelievable and if ex-players are already like this, you can imagine how everything else is going. Now you just have to ask yourself 'how would you want to react in a situation like this?' And you would, of course, fight back. That's completely normal, that's what we expect."
Jurgen Klopp tore into Gabby Agbonlahor after he called Manchester United a 'shambles' on a radio show 👀 pic.twitter.com/i1fV9co1qw
— GOAL (@goal) August 19, 2022
What did Klopp say about the red card shown to Nunez?
Klopp also, unsurprisingly, faced a question about the dismissal of Nunez in the draw against Crystal Palace on Monday evening.
"Of course we spoke to Darwin and the reaction is like the reaction is in these situations," he said. "He was very disappointed with himself. The things the centre-half [Joachim Andersen] did, he's not the only player in the world doing these kind of things.
"It's about emotions, it's about all these kind of things. We've never had a situation like this before it and that's why I'm not an expert in these talks because I don't need to have them that often.
"But it was that obvious that he knew anyway. He apologised which is absolutely fine but it's not necessary that he walks through the building with his head down, we told him that. We are human beings and we will make mistakes in our lives."
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