Antonio Conte has claimed that Jurgen Klopp made disparaging comments about Tottenham’s style of play last season due to his own frustration.
Spurs and Liverpool played out two draws last season, the second of which came at Anfield back in May. Tottenham took the lead through Son Heung-min on 56 minutes in that encounter before Luis Diaz’s deflected strike in the 74th minute nestled into the far corner past Hugo Lloris.
(Photo by Tottenham Hotspur FC/Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images)
Spurs had a couple of guilt-edged chances to win it in the end, with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg failing to get the desired connection on a header after he found himself unmarked in the Liverpool box in stoppage time.
After the game, Klopp was critical of the fact that the Lilywhites defended so deep despite having some ‘world-class players’ at their disposal, and insisted that he would never set his team to play in that way (BeanymanSports).
Conte has now remarked that the Liverpool boss made those comments due to his frustration at the result, adding that the two dropped points eventually cost the Reds the Premier League title.
When asked about Klopp’s comments, the Spurs head coach told Football.London: “Yeah, but if you remember he lost the Premier League for this result. I understood his frustration.
“They lost the Premier League because of that result. They lost the Premier League for these two points, but you know instead we reached the Champions League with that draw.
“It’s okay, every coach has to speak for his team. For every coach, it’s important to understand the best strategy to reach a good result. Honestly, I have seen again the last game we played against Liverpool and if there was a team that deserved to win it was Tottenham, not Liverpool.
“But I understand after the game when you felt you lost the Premier League to say something wrong against another team, but he has said sorry because he understood. No problem for me. When you are angry it’s very difficult sometimes to control your emotion.”
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Klopp made similarly disparaging comments about Tottenham’s style of play after the 2-2 draw at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in December. The irony of the Liverpool boss’ comments is that we created better chances than the Reds in both matches last season, and should have arguably taken six points rather than just two.
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