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'Watch wrestling if you like this kind of thing' - Jurgen Klopp questions new interpretations after Liverpool win
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Published 21/08/2021 at 19:04 GMT+1
“Burnley is never a game where you’re flying and you can out-play them, at least not for us,” Klopp said. “We always have to be ready for a proper fight and we were today, in a really difficult game. “It’s just too dangerous. You cannot really judge the situations, how you get up, in the air it’s fine, but then you get down and they stand still in the defender. It’s just hard.”
'Van Dijk came through proper test against Burnley' - Liverpool boss Klopp
Video credit: SNTV
Jurgen Klopp has called into question the move by law makers to allow more contact, saying there is a fear it will be more like watching wrestling than football.
The opening two weekends of the Premier League season have seen officials take a more relaxed approach to contact, with the onus being on allowing the game to flow as much as possible.
Liverpool boss Klopp is still adjusting to the new interpretations, but feels it is imperative that players are protected from harm.
Klopp questioned some of the challenges from Burnley during Liverpool’s 2-0 win at Anfield on Saturday.
“Burnley is never a game where you’re flying and you can out-play them, at least not for us,” Klopp told BT Sport. “We always have to be ready for a proper fight and we were today, in a really difficult game.
“You saw these challenges with [Ashley] Barnes and [Chris] Wood and Virgil [van Dijk] and Joel [Matip]…I’m not 100 per cent sure if we are really going in the right direction with these kind of decisions.
“It’s just too dangerous. You cannot really judge the situations, how you get up, in the air it’s fine, but then you get down and they stand still in the defender. It’s just hard.”
Klopp is in favour of the game being more open and attractive, but not at the expense of player safety.
“It’s all fine, we need to get used to it but we need to think about it a second or a third time,” Klopp said of the laws. “There’s the message, ‘let the game flow’ but nobody knows exactly what that means.
“That’s fine, that’s fine, that’s fine, that’s not a foul anymore, but I’m not sure.
“We have to stick to protecting the players, we cannot deny that and say, ‘that’s a challenge, I love watching that.’ Then watch wrestling if you like this kind of thing.”
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