Jurgen Klopp: Liverpool boss says Premier League in danger of going ’10 to 15 years backwards’
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said “it’s like we’re going 10 to 15 years backwards” as he called on the Premier League to protect players by rethinking rule changes.
Klopp was unhappy with a number of challenges during Saturday’s 2-0 win over Burnley.
Before the new season, clubs were told officials would not penalise “trivial things” to allow games to flow better.
Klopp told BT Sport: “If you like that sort of thing, watch wrestling.”
Referee Mike Dean did not issue any yellow cards at a sold-out Anfield on Saturday, despite Burnley conceding 12 free-kicks.
Klopp was frustrated with challenges from Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood and left questioning if the rule changes are having a negative impact on the game.
“We always had to be ready for a proper fight and we were today,” said Klopp.
“You saw these challenges with [Ashley] Barnes and [Chris] Wood and Virgil [van Dijk] and Joel [Matip]. I’m not 100% if officials are going in the right direction with these decisions.
“It’s like we’re going 10 to 15 years backwards. The rules are like they are, but you cannot defend these situations.
“The message now is let the game flow, but nobody exactly knows what that means.
‘This is the football we want to see but it’s just too dangerous.”
An 18th-minute Diogo Jota header and an impressive second-half Sadio Mane strike ensured Liverpool made it two Premier League wins from two, and Klopp is thankful his players emerged unscathed.
“I like decisions that favour the offensive team, that’s fine,” said the German.
“But we have to stick to protecting the players. We cannot deny that.
“In a lot of moments, we played a brilliant game without scoring. In all the other moments, we had to fight incredibly hard. We won it and nobody got injured.”
Liverpool 2-0 Burnley: We ‘should have had penalty’ on ‘tough’ day – Sean Dyche
Klopp’s Burnley counterpart Sean Dyche was also unhappy with some of the decisions, which he felt contradicted what managers were told prior to the new season.
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When asked if he liked the new rules, Dyche said: “I do, but it didn’t happen today.
“There were too many soft fouls. We were told in the week before there would be no soft fouls. There were too many for me.
“Then we get a penalty that isn’t given. If that’s in the middle of the pitch, it’s given.”
The Clarets boss felt his side should have been awarded a spot-kick when winger Dwight McNeil went down in the box under pressure from Trent Alexander-Arnold, but Dean allowed play to continue.
“Our record with [getting] penalties is not great,” he added. “Hopefully that will change at some point.”
‘We need the big characters like Klopp to get behind the new way of refereeing’
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 live, former England midfielder Jermaine Jenas said the rule change is a welcome addition.
“If anything we had gone too far the other way with constant whistle blowing for fouls and we forgot that end-to-end game of football that is the Premier League – it’s been a welcome addition to me,” said Jenas.
“Jurgen Klopp is the first person I’ve heard saying he wants it to go back to how it was – which is disappointing.
“The referees have taken so much criticism in the past couple of years for the way that the game has gone with VAR and the way they referee the game and they’ve reacted in the right way I think.
“We need the big characters like Klopp to get behind it – but he obviously felt today was too physical a game for his two centre-halves and that’s his opinion.”
