Jurgen Klopp hits back at Gabriel Agbonlahor over Man Utd comments

By Carl Markham, PA

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has taken a bizarre swipe at former Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor for his criticism of Manchester United.

Klopp was driving home from the club’s training ground on Saturday evening when he heard the 35-year-old, now a pundit for talkSPORT, laying into United’s players for their performance in the 4-0 defeat at Brentford.

Agbonlahor said: “If I was them now after this game I’d be thinking, ‘You know what, (Erik) Ten Hag, just pack up’.

“He’s had pre-season and they have started the season as a shambles, they’re like strangers on the pitch.”

Klopp believes those views are typical of a media over-reaction to the early-season fortunes of their arch-rivals, whom they play at Old Trafford on Monday night.

“It was that bad,” said Klopp of the criticism and reaction to United’s performance.

“It was obviously not a nice week for United after the Brentford game, we forget in these moments how good Brentford is.

“I watched the first half here and then drove home and listened to talkSPORT and Gaby – he lost against us 6-0 in my first year and I could not remember him as a mentality monster on the pitch – what he said about United, I was close to calling in and tell him ‘You forget completely you have been a player’.

“It was completely unbelievable. And if ex-players go in like this then you can imagine how everything else is going.”