Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has leapt to the defence of under-fire goalkeeper Loris Karius once again, this time slamming pundits Gary and Phil Neville following their war-of-words with the young German.
Karius was the subject of heavy criticism after a pair of costly errors in the 4-3 defeat at Bournemouth and did little to help his cause by failing to keep out Dimitri Payet’s free-kick in Sunday’s draw with West Ham.
The summer signing from Mainz dismissed Gary Neville’s censure following his side’s dramatic collapse at the Vitality Stadium, pointing out his struggles as manager of Valencia, but was urged to ‘keep his mouth shut and do his job’ by Neville’s brother Phil on Match of the Day.
Klopp was forced to field multiple questions over his compatriot’s form in his press conference ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Middlesbrough, but emphatically dismissed the criticism of the former Manchester United duo.
“First of all my job is to protect the players as much as I can but I am not on the pitch so I cannot go with them,” he said.
“The pundits, former players most of them, forgot completely how it felt when they got criticised.
“Especially the Neville brothers: the one who was the manager [Gary], he obviously should know that too much criticism never helps.
“But 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 [at Valencia] when he was manager so why do we let him talk about players on television?
“I don’t listen to them. I am pretty sure Carra doesn’t speak too positively about Man United players.
“Obviously the Neville brothers don’t like Liverpool, I have no problem with that and if they can cause bigger problems than we have already they have tried.”
“By the way, you can tell him I am not on Twitter so if he wants to tell me something Twitter doesn’t help,” Klopp added, in a not-so-subtle jibe.
The 49-year old is expected to keep faith with Karius for Wednesday’s game, with Simon Mignolet forced to watch on from the sidelines.
