Frank Lampard has cleared the air on his purported feud with the manager of Liverpool football club, Jurgen Klopp which almost took away the shine from Liverpool’s 5-3 win against Chelsea on Wednesday night.
The match was the last home game of the Premier League champions this season, hence, at the end of the match, they were awarded the Premier League title, nearly a month after they were confirmed champions.
Everything didn’t go as smoothly as it should as both the managers of Liverpool and Chelsea engaged in a severe argument on the touchline. The argument was whether Liverpool deserved a free-kick near Chelsea’s box-eighteen or not. As the managers were arguing about it, Liverpool‘s Trent Alexander-Arnold had slugged in the free-kick to double Liverpool’s lead in the first half.
But the celebration of the goal didn’t matter as fans of both clubs took up the comments Frank Lampard made during his argument with Klopp. The part that got all the attention was when Chelsea’s manager told Klopp that “Only league title you’ve ever won and you’re f**king given it the biggun; f**k off”.
This is very poor from Frank Lampard. pic.twitter.com/QlasmJV6Oy
— – (@AnfieldRd96) July 23, 2020
Frank Lampard didn’t stop there, immediately after the match, he granted a post-match interview and also displayed how unhappy he was with the outcome of the match. He told Liverpool coaches and players that “there’s a fine line between winning and when you’ve won the league. Don’t get too arrogant with it.”
Fair to say that Frank Lampard wasn't happy with the Liverpool bench last night 😅
— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) July 23, 2020
"There's a fine line between winning & when you've won the league. Don't get too arrogant with it."
📹 @footballdaily pic.twitter.com/LXU6NssG3Q
Frank Lampard is not happy with Liverpool’s Bench
On Friday, when he was having a chat about Chelsea’s last game against Wolves on Sunday, the question about his heated argument with Klopp surfaced, Lampard revealed that he was irritated that Liverpool’s backroom staff broke football’s touchline “code”.
He singled out the assistant manager of Liverpool Pep Lijnders as the major culprit who left the bench to have a discussion with Klopp on the touchline severally. A scenario Lampard believes was against the touchline “code”.
Lampard said: “What is the code? I think when you speak between managers, and there are lots of decisions that go and you can hear it more clearly now without the crowd. And lots of managers will call for decisions and it may be right or wrong. And then you speak with each other.
“But when people on the bench jump up and want to speak across to myself and then smirk and smile and then continue to do so for quite a while; I think that is past the code.”
On why he said Liverpool was arrogant over their Premier League triumph, Frank Lampard said: “What I think also when you talk about arrogance is respect, and when you are in a role at a club or whether you are talking about how benches work – and I could speak to Jurgen Klopp all day and could fight the corner of a decision or performance of a referee – what my feeling was the bench at Liverpool, or one person, in particular, was absolutely crossing that line so that became arrogant to me.”
Lampard Hails Klopp
Meanwhile, Chelsea football legend turned manager Frank Lampard has stressed that he doesn’t have a problem with Klopp and what he has achieved with Liverpool. He revealed that he shook hands with Klopp after the match and congratulated him for what he has achieved with Liverpool.
“I haven’t contacted Liverpool, I shook Jurgen Klopp’s hand at the end and said, ‘well done’ and I would easily have sat and had a beer with him and congratulated him on what an incredible job he has done,” Lampard said.
“I know how hard it is to win a Premier League, I know how much work goes into it. He’s been there four or five years and the journey and the work has been incredible.
“He deserves everything. That was nothing to do with him. What happened on the line can happen a fair bit.”
Unlike Jurgen Klopp who has nothing to lose again this season apart from insignificant 3 points, Frank Lampard has a must-win match against 6th placed Wolves. Though Chelsea is currently sitting on the 4th spot, if Lampard fails to lead his men to a victory on Sunday, they will have to settle for Europa League football next season.
