Klopp plays down Pep talk about ‘diver’ Mane

JURGEN Klopp (right) believes Pep Guardiola focuses much more on Liverpool than the Reds manager himself does on Ma nc heste r Cit y, joking his “brain is not big enough to th i n k about another team”.

In the immediate aftermath of City’s 2-1 win over Southampton, which kept them six points behind their title rivals at the top of the table, Guardiola was aiming “diving” barbs at Sadio Mane.

Klopp, by contrast, insists it was at least 45 minutes after the final whistle of their added-time victory at Aston Villa –where Mane was booked for going down under a challenge from Frederic Guilbert – before he even learned of the day’s other scores never mind look at the games in detail.

The German said he was not interested i n talking about Manchester City, who visit Anfield on Sunday, with a Champions League game at home to Genk up first tonight.

But when questioned about the timing of Guardiola’s comments Klopp said: “I have no clue. Do I get asked as well as much about Man City? I don’t know.

“When I came into the interview after the game for example I really had no clue what the other Premier League results were. That is the truth.

“When I come into the dressing-room I don’t come in and say ‘What’s the result of the other games’.

“I didn’t think for one second about the other games. Then after the interviews: ‘ By the way, how did the other teams play?’ then someone told me, City won in the 86th minute and all this happened.

“It was 45 minutes after the game when I heard the results of the other games.

“I don’t understand these types of things. My brain is not big enough to think about another team as well.

“I have enough to do to think about us and deal with all these things.

“Tonight we play Genk and that deserves all my attention and gets it. After that we can speak about Manchester City.”

In his press conference ahead of the Genk game Klopp had stressed he was “absolutely not in the mood to talk about Man City”.

However, away from the television cameras the Liverpool manager showed he understood full well that the mind games had started and could not resist a dig of his own.

“I couldn’t really believe it to be honest and then I saw it. I am not sure if Pep spoke in that moment about Sadio or the team – both is not too nice to be honest,” he said.

Meanwhile, a win against Genk would go a long way to securing Liverpool’s progress to the knockout stage as they have a three-point cushion over Red Bull Salzburg, who face Group E leaders Napoli.