Allardyce tries to squash Klopp beef after German sarcastically shoots him down

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To be fair to Sam Allardyce, he’s offered an olive branch to Jurgen Klopp today, after making a series of irritating comments regarding Liverpool and our new boss.

The mini feud began when we beat Sunderland just after Christmas, with Allardyce labelling Klopp a “soft German” for our boss’s anger at a reckless late challenge on Mamadou Sakho.

He then felt the need to weigh in on the debate surrounding our current injury crisis, suggesting that Klopp’s intense brand of football has caused a number of our squad to hurt themselves recently. In fact, 11 players are now out injured, with Jordon Ibe the latest hamstring victim.

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Klopp wasn’t happy, and delivered a sarcastic blow. “I’m glad Sam has time to think about Liverpool problems, but I don’t really have time to think about this,” he said via the BBC.

But Allardyce has apologised for sticking his nose in.

“I think the headline has upset him in the nationals,” began the Black Cats boss, cited by ITV.

“I got asked a question by a friend of mine, Alan Brazil, on talkSPORT, ‘What do you think the injuries are down to?’, and I gave an opinion off the question that Alan asked me, which was perhaps the high-pressing game in all the games that they have had created that little bit more fatigue and that was maybe a cause of why they have picked up so many hamstrings.

“It was a question that Alan asked me, I answered it and never expected it to bring the headlines it’s brought.

“But if Jurgen is listening, I didn’t mean to upset you or criticise your club in any way, I was just giving what I could see as as maybe one of the reasons why we get injuries.

“I am very wary of the amount of work we do in the week now in the hope that our players have enough energy to do the running they need to do in this period of time to try to get a result, and we are all suffering because of it.

“I’ll probably suffer some injuries, no doubt, by the end of next week when we have played three games in a short period of time, but we are trying to manage it.

“I was just trying to say that he hasn’t experience this level of football before and maybe that might be one of the causes.”

Asked if the pair had fallen out, Allardyce replied: “I hope not. I had no intention of trying to wind him up. Alan asked me to talk about Sunderland, he threw the question in at the end and maybe I should have said, ‘It’s not for me to answer, it’s for Jurgen’. I don’t know.”

Klopp’s not the kind to hold a grudge, and like he intimated beforehand – he’s got far more pressing concerns than the words of mid-table, bog-standard manager. (We’re not going to call Allardyce a rival.)

The former Bolton boss has clearly realised he’s gone too far, so fair play for the retraction – but he should watch his mouth more in the first place.

Liverpool take on Exeter City in the FA Cup tonight but will be deploying a virtual Under-21 XI due to the injury crisis.

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