Jurgen Klopp shrugs off Sam Allardyce ‘soft German’ jibe

Liverpool were not at their best, but their control and another clean sheet will please boss Jurgen Klopp.

“We knew that Sunderland would sit deep and try and play on the counter-attack so it was up to us to break them down”. The former Borussia Dortmund manager believes the Belgian can improve his work rate and offer more options off the ball, something Klopp has been urging him to do since the start of his campaign.

“I think it’s the first time somebody has said this about me so it’s cool”.

Liverpool beat Leicester City on Boxing Day and Jurgen Klopp made only one change to that squad, replacing Divock Origi with Benteke, who also scored the victor against the Foxes while, Sunderland made four changes to the team that lost 4-1 to Manchester City on Dec 26, 2015. “We knew about Sunderland’s situation”.

“But at this moment, we need his goals more than anything else”.

The Black Cats’ manager thought his team deserved to be on level terms at half-time, but he rued Christian Benteke’s quickfire victor after the interval and the impact it had on his team, who are seven points adrift of safety after a fifth straight loss. This time of the year is really intense, the players have to fight really hard with games every few days.

Klopp took exception to a challenge from Jeremain Lens on Mamadou Sakho late in Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, protesting that the challenge warranted more than the yellow card official Kevin Friend brandished.

Asked about that assertion, the Sunderland manager said: “He’s a soft German if he thinks that’s a red card”.

“If we give him that confidence he will get those 20 goals this year”. “There was some foul and abusive langauge towards my staff and I didn’t like that”.

“It could have been two or three in the end – on the counter we had a couple of chances – but it’s a great result for us and hopefully we can push on and get another win on Saturday”.