‘Did you watch it?’ Klopp hits back at Danish reporter

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp hit back on Tuesday night.

The German allowed himself to get a little fiesty at Danish journalist Jonas Dalgård, who writes for Bold.

Dalgård questioned whether Klopp’s selection showed a lack of respect to Midtjylland, and wondered whether the Liverpool manager had underestimated the strengths of the visitors.

"He asked: “Was that a point of underestimating Midtylland, or is it just us Danes thinking that?”"

This question needs to be equipped with a little context. Before the match on Tuesday night, the manager spoke in glowing terms about Midtylland and urged Dalgård to have more confidence.

However, Dalgård interpreted the much changed XI as a slight against the Danish champs, and tried to pull Klopp up on this.

There was no room for Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino or Mohamed Salah in the starting side while Gini Wijnaldum dropped to the bench. Xherdan Shaqiri was the surprise pick in midfield, while James Milner retained his Champions League place alongside Jordan Henderson and Shaqiri.

Takumi Minamino, Divock Origi and Diogo Jota were chosen to the lead the line and they do that with varying degrees of respect. Jota scored, but Minamino and Origi both looked a little lost.

Salah came on, won a penalty and converted it to seal the game for Liverpool – who are the only team in their group to claim six points from two games as Ajax and Atalanta played out a thrilling 2-2 draw.

The decision to make so many changes, insisted Klopp, showed respect to Midtylland. The German wanted fresh legs on the field, and was worried the Danes would be too strong for Liverpool if they lined up with tired players.

"“I’m not 100% sure if I like your question, if you would watch a little bit more Liverpool you would understand our situation and you would not think this was a sign for not respecting Midtylland.“Actually, the lineup we chose was to show the respect because we needed fresh legs desperately. If you watch the game, I’m not sure that you did, but if you watch the game you saw that we needed each fresh leg we could get.”"

We’ve seen Klopp get annoyed with reporters before, but it’s clear from his answer that he felt Dalgård had crossed a line. The gaffer urged the journalist to be more clued up on the Reds, and generally gave him a very public dressing-down.