Jurgen Klopp has blamed ‘blatant refereeing decisions’ as the reason why Liverpool didn’t win the Premier League last season but believes the Citizens ‘deserved’ their success.
Pep Guardiola’s side pipped the Reds to the title on the final day of the season after coming from behind to beat Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa 3-2 at the Etihad.
The Sky Blues needed to beat or match Liverpool’s result on the final day and they were successful in doing so – winning their eighth top flight title by a single point.
But Klopp believes had some of the decisions from officials went his side’s way during the season, it may have been the Merseysiders lifting their 20th title instead.
“I don’t have any problems with anyone from City. They deserved it just as much as we deserved it,” Klopp told Sport 1 (via Metro).
“What comes up in a moment like that – a few things happened over the season when a few things went against us, so I was thinking on the [final] day, let’s hope it won’t be decisive in the end.
“And then you forget about it again and don’t think about it. There were really blatant refereeing decisions. You keep thinking, what went in our favour?
“Completely without club glasses. We were lucky once not to get a penalty against us. But we were already leading 2-0. Otherwise… nothing.
“And against us? Clear handball penalties, penalties not given. Clear red cards not given against us, so for the opponent. That comes up at this moment. It’s human to think for a moment. But I don’t carry that around for long.
“No matter how Manchester City get the result, I accepted it – it’s deserved. And the other way round quite the same.
“And I can say: today I would be sitting here and wouldn’t feel one bit different if I had become champion and won the Champions League for a second time.”
Opposition supporters will likely claim that this is another case of Klopp spitting his dummy out.
He’s admitted that City deserved to be champions, however, and he’s just being honest with how he feels last season went.
Despite the disappointing end to the season, we still had a great campaign and won both domestic cup competitions and reached the Champions League final against Real Madrid in Paris.
We missed out on the two trophies we would’ve liked to have won at the start of the season but it was still a memorable campaign.
We had huge hopes of going one step further in the English top flight this time around but if our start to the campaign is anything to go by then it’s not looking good.
Table toppers Arsenal are just six points ahead of us and current Champions City are just five points above us, though.
It’s still early doors and we won’t go down without a fight!
#Ep59 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: Why are Liverpool so poor? The Napoli nightmare… & more!