Everton boss Frank Lampard backs Jurgen Klopp over touchline antics against Manchester City
Everton boss Frank Lampard has dismissed claims that Jurgen Klopp’s touchline antics affect the game at the grassroots level.
The Liverpool manager was shown a red card in his club’s 2-1 win over Manchester City on Sunday after an angry tirade against referee Anthony Taylor.
A referees’ charity damned the German saying his antics affect behaviour further down the football pyramid, however, Everton boss Lampard admitted he doesn’t see the correlation.
“We have a responsibility but there’s also a microscope where we’re in highly-pressured jobs,” said Lampard as quoted by the Daily Mail.
“If you’re trying to draw the line from that to Sunday League and attacking the referee, that’s a personal thing. I don’t see it.
“With (Antonio) Conte and (Thomas) Tuchel (who had a touchline spat) earlier in the season we were saying, ‘This is great, this is what Premier League is about’.”
Pointing the finger.
As always Lampard has given a classy response in regard to the situation involving a bitter rival something he’s done on countless occasions.
It’s steep to compare Klopp’s actions affecting managers and players at grassroots levels, yes Premier League managers have a huge influence but it’s unlikely this would cause an upturn in bad behaviour.
This seems more like referees trying to take the heat off themselves after recent calamities involving numerous top-level refs in the Premier League.
More needs to be done in questioning these referees and a VAR system that continues to provide blunders on the weekly.
The video refereeing system was meant to change the game in a positive way, eliminating poor decisions in the process.
But if anything it’s made the beautiful game even more confusing and provided teams with unfair and baffling calls along the way.
Unfortunately, it looks like it’s here to stay, some drastic changes need to be made soon or the Premier League will become a laughing stock.