Wilder insists he and Klopp are ‘fine’ after spat
Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder insists he has nothing but admiration for the “incredibly talented” Jurgen Klopp following the public spat between the two managers earlier this season.
Wilder said the Liverpool boss was being selfish when he advocated a return of the five substitutes rule, believing it would give those with much bigger squads and resources an advantage, and later described the German as a “world-class politician”.
Klopp then responded with several jibes at Wilder in his media interviews, including pointing out that the Blades only had one point on the board at the time.
The pair will meet for the first time since that war of words i n Nov e m b e r, wh e n Liverpool travel to Bramall Lane today.
Ahead of the clash, Wilder insisted: “The relationship is fine.
“I’ve got nothing but admiration for Jurgen, he’s a top-class manager. That’s what happens, people talk and things get said. If I was precious about things being said I wouldn’t do this job.
“If I took notice of people in the media and what the majority have said through my time as a manager, I don’t think I would be sat here and I think that’s the same for the manager at Liverpool.
“He’s an incredibly talented manager, he’s a winner and we all try to win. He has done that in incredible fashion.
“If it was personal, I didn’t take it personal, and I have moved on and for me to worry about stuff like that is way down the pecking order.”
Klopp insists he does not blame the players for the disappointing drop off in results which has left the defending champions in a battle for the top four.
A return of just nine points – and two wins – from a possible 33 since thrashing Crystal Palace 7- 0 on December 19 has seen the Reds fall from first to sixth.
With their title defence in tatters Liverpool are left with a significant challenge just to secure Champions League qualification, but Klopp said “careers don’t end after this season”.
“We will try everything this season, but there are so many things we can learn from it,” he said.
“I don’t go and put the finger on my players and blame them for the situation – I don’t do that.
“We are all responsible for it, I am mainly responsible for it. What we go through now, we have to sort problems now, immediately, and in the long term we can get the benefit of what we are going through in the moment.
“It’s not cool, but there are much worse things out there than the situation we are in as a football club.”