Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was not happy after the Reds’ 1-0 defeat to Southampton earlier this week in the Premier League and took aim at Manchester United in his post-match comments.
It wasn’t completely irrelevant, though, as the champions were denied what appeared to be two stonewall penalties at St Mary’s by referee Andre Marriner.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United are somewhat pivotal to the discussion here, given how many penalties they’ve been given over the last few years when compared to Klopp’s team.
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The Red Devils have been awarded 32 spot-kicks since the start of the 2017/18 season, compared to 17 picked up by Liverpool in the same time period – a noticeable difference of 15.
So when speaking after the Reds’ loss at Southampton, Klopp brought this up and said United had won more penalties in the last two years than he has in five-and-a-half, which – as you can see in the BBC’s Simon Stone’s tweet below – Solskjaer acknowledges.
Although it was a rather tongue-in-cheek response, the Norweigan said ‘it’s a fact‘ they’ve gotten more spot-kicks than Liverpool – but has accused the German of trying to influence future decisions.
OGS agrees with Jurgen Klopp re pens 'It’s a fact we have got more than him' – but: "I can't talk about why other managers say things like this. Maybe it’s a way of influencing referees. I don’t worry about that. When they foul our players in the box it’s a penalty."
— Simon Stone (@sistoney67) January 5, 2021