Sam Allardyce apologises to Jurgen Klopp for jibe over Liverpool injury crisis
Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce has offered his apologies to Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp over an apparent dig aimed at the German and his tactics. ‘Big Sam’, who had a run-in with Klopp over Christmas has moved quickly to douse the fire over his latest comments regarding the former Borussia Dortmund manager.
Liverpool are currently enduring a nightmare injury crisis with as many as 13 players out with various injuries with an astonishing seven of them being hamstring injuries. Fingers were pointed towards the manager and his tactics(gegenpressing) and training methods were seen by some as the primary reason for the injury epidemic at Anfield.
Earlier, when asked for his views on the injury problems faced by Liverpool, Allardyce had claimed that the German had underestimated the ‘ferocity’ of the Premier League.
"It's great that the players have been able to carry it out but I think it has kicked in now.
"I don't think Jurgen has realised just how ferocious our league is at this period of time and because he has asked for that extra high-energy, that extra ten yards, these lads are fatiguing now with so many games in much a short period of time and are picking up these muscle strains.
However, the former Blackburn manager has reached out to Klopp and has tried to offer an explanation for his comments.
"If Jurgen is listening, I didn't mean to upset you or criticise your club in any way. I was just giving what I see could be one of the reasons why we get injuries," Allardyce said.
"It was a question that Alan asked me, I answered it and never expected it to bring the headlines it's brought. I am very wary about the amount of work we do in the week now, in the hope that our players have enough energy to do the running in this period of time to try and get a result. We are all suffering because of it.”
"I'll probably suffer some injuries now, by the end of next week, when we are playing three games in a short period of time. I was just trying to say he hasn't experienced this level of football before and maybe that might be one of the causes.”
"I had no intentions of trying to wind him up or any such. Alan [Brazil] asked me to talk about Sunderland. He threw the question in at the end and maybe I should have said it's not for me to answer, it's for Jurgen."
Klopp hits back at Allardyce
Jurgen Klopp hit back at Allardyce’s claims with a cheeky dig of his own as he spoke at the pre-match press conference with Liverpool taking on League two side Exeter City in the FA Cup late on Friday night.
"I knew about the Premier League," Klopp insisted. "It's not a problem. Maybe he [Allardyce] has time to think about Liverpool problems.
"The problem is that, in this situation, we speak about the intensity of my style. I didn't create this style, how could I? I'm not a genius."
He also admitted that he is not left with a single senior centre back in the squad as Kolo Toure and Dejan Lovren joined Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho on the treatment table.
Klopp also disclosed that the influential Brazilian Phillipe Coutinho who injured himself in Liverpool's first leg win in the semis of the Capital One Cup against Stoke, will be out for at least three weeks piling more misery on the club as he is scheduled to miss crucial games against league leaders Arsenal and arch rivals Manchester United.
"Phil is more serious than Dejan and Kolo. None of these players will be available for tomorrow.”