Jurgen Klopp refusing to answer reporter’s question after Liverpool loss shows he’s ‘under pressure’ as manager tells him to apologize for his behavior

Jurgen Klopp’s refusal to answer a reporter’s question shows he is ‘under pressure’ and has been compared to legendary Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson.

Following Liverpool’s 3-0 loss to Wolves, The Athletic journalist James Pearce asked the Reds boss if their slow start to the game had to do with his side’s mentality.

An upset Klopp replied: “It’s very difficult to talk to you if I’m being 100 per cent honest, I’d rather not. You know why, for everything you’ve written.

Commenting on the incident, former footballer and now pundit Scott Minto told talkSPORT: “Things are not going well, to put it mildly.

“What I would say is that although you wouldn’t want that to happen and I don’t know what James has written in the past, clearly he has written something that Klopp [doesn’t like]. James is able to write whatever he wants but Klopp is able to respond however he wants.

“Now things like that only happen where there’s a crisis and I think there’s a crisis at Liverpool, I think you’re right to use that word. But, at the end of the day, Sir Alex Ferguson used to do this sort of thing.

“He used to ban people, he would do whatever he wanted to do if he felt he needed a siege mentality.

“Klopp, I think, is capable of doing whatever he wants and again he won the right, but what I would say is does it actually help him? Because it is a valid question, the main thing is that it was a good question.

Klopp asked another journalist to ask him the same question and replied: “Yeah, that’s right. We had that… in the early part of seasons, now not so much.

“But today was, if you will, the height of our problems. In a game like this, that’s absolutely not allowed.

“You can criticize, you can judge us, you can say whatever you want and you’re probably right. I have nothing to say against that because those 12 minutes are not allowed.

“Coming here with the things we’ve been doing for the past few days…and you come here and that’s the result that’s really hard to accept, I have to say.”

Klopp added: “These 12 minutes [where Liverpool conceded two goals] were the worst for a while.

Minto then said, “It was clearly not about the question.

“It was just about him and what was written before and I don’t know what was written before.

“But what it shows here is that Klopp feels under pressure. That’s not who Klopp is naturally.

“When he first came to the Premier League I think they lost 4-3 at Bournemouth and he said ‘it’s a great game of football’, that type of reaction.

“We don’t see that and that has completely changed now.”

Former Anfield midfielder Didi Hamann says Klopp should apologize.

“I found it very strange and mean-spirited and what he has to realize is that James Pearce and his family have been bombarded with abusive messages since this incident because Klopp did not answer a question.

“It was a very good question to ask him and I think the least James deserves is an apology. Liverpool are a club based on respect and I think someone needs to say [Klopp] “It’s Liverpool Football Club and you can’t do that.”

“We have campaigns against bullying and you can’t let the Liverpool manager behave like he did.

“I don’t think anyone at the club has the bottle to tell him, which I think they should. He might say ‘Well, if I had a few players, maybe I wouldn’t have to answer these issues”, so there might be a bit of a dead end.

“The way things are going right now, those things don’t help him and they certainly don’t help the club, which is above everything else.

“You can’t have a situation where the manager disrespects a highly respected journalist like he did James Pearce.”

After their defeat at Molineux, in which they lost 2-0 in the first 15 minutes, Liverpool are now tenth in the Premier League.

They are also winless in four matches in the top flight, and so far have one win in a possible seven in 2023.

Klopp’s side are 11 points clear of the top four, with Champions League football next season currently looking unlikely.