Jürgen Klopp and Erik ten Hag have appealed for fans at Old Trafford on Sunday to avoid the tragedy chanting that marred Manchester United’s recent FA Cup win over Liverpool.
Klopp called on supporters to “show a bit of class” and his United counterpart said the game must not be “used as an excuse for abusing rival fans” about past tragedies.
Two United supporters were arrested on suspicion of tragedy chanting after their team’s thrilling 4-3 victory last month. The Football Association issued a statement condemning the chants that emanated from the Stretford End before and during the game.
With the fierce rivals meeting again in the Premier League, Klopp has made another attempt to address tragedy-related abuse in the fixture. The Liverpool manager and his United counterpart, Ten Hag, issued a joint statement last season calling for an end to chanting about Hillsborough, Heysel and Munich. The two clubs’ charity foundations have also come together to deliver an education programme to schoolchildren on the impact of tragedy-related abuse.
“I think it is super important,” said Klopp as he prepared for the return to Old Trafford. “There are different aspects but one aspect is that I don’t hear it, honestly, when I am on the sideline but I get told it happens and that is obviously not great. But in general it is just helpful that we educate our kids in specific things: respect, understanding, all these kinds of things.
“I just see two of the biggest clubs in the world, so let’s just show a bit of class in these moments. Don’t sing this or sing that. Just show class, let the teams fight on the pitch, let’s play football; that is all fine. Besides that, just show a bit of class, that would be my wish for all of us.”
Ten Hag said in words released early from his programme notes: “It is part of my duty to remind every supporter fortunate enough to be at the game that it must be enjoyed in the proper way, and not used as an excuse for abusing rival fans about Hillsborough, Heysel or any other historic tragedies.
“This is one of the truly great rivalries in world sport, for so many of the right reasons, and it is our responsibility to keep it that way. Whether the clubs meet at Old Trafford or Anfield, all supporters must focus entirely on backing their team and both Jürgen and I trust that we can count on that happening today.”
Meanwhile, Klopp has explained why he snapped at a reporter who questioned Liverpool’s lack of intensity during their FA Cup defeat at United and insisted there will be no repeat – at least from his team – when they meet on Sunday.
Footage of the Liverpool manager walking out of a post-match interview with Viaplay’s Niels Christian Frederiksen went viral following the quarter-final. Klopp took exception to Frederiksen asking why Liverpool’s intensity dropped during extra time and angrily cut the interview short. He believes the impact of the two clubs’ contrasting schedules became clear in extra time and was a major factor in the defeat. The FA Cup tie was Liverpool’s ninth game in 30 days and they had played in the Europa League three days earlier. United, who had a free week to prepare for the home fixture, were playing their sixth match in 29 days.
“There was this famous interview afterwards – I’d like to say I was out of the country [for the fall-out] but I wasn’t, I stayed in the country – but I knew what would happen,” Klopp said. “I was really calm after the game, I was not angry, because I knew that, yes, we had to win it in this [90 minute] period. The first 15-20 minutes United were there, really aggressive and scored the goal. But then we took over and it was the best we played against them for a while for sure. In similar situations there was really good football without scoring. After 90 minutes, I saw minute by minute that it was too much. It was the end of this intense spell, and now extra time was the killer for us.
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“That’s why I said after the game that it was the first time I saw us struggling. It was too much for this specific group, with the way we had to change, with the players coming back just in time for this game and these kind of things. But I was not angry. And then the guy asked me about intensity and that was just when it snapped. As if anybody would be interested in the intensity or why you cannot keep up the intensity with them? United played I don’t know how many less games than we had until then. But the game was brilliant in moments, absolutely brilliant, but we did not have the legs that day obviously to use it.
“You saw these quick attacks we had, these four v three situations, and then unlikely for us we pretty consistently found the wrong player to finish it off. There is nothing you can do. That is just when the brain is not really fresh and the boys don’t see the right solution. That’s how it is and you have to accept it and I did. We lost because they stayed in the game, scored their goals, we made mistakes for two of them, and that’s how it happened.”
Klopp believes intensity will not be an issue for his players on Sunday, when his Premier League leaders could take a significant step towards the title by avenging their FA Cup loss.
The Liverpool manager added: “We play Manchester United, an opponent who is probably not 100% happy with how their season has gone. So what can they do with this specific [FA Cup] game? You saw after the game we played against them how they felt after it and what it meant to them. But for us it’s just as important and I cannot see us playing football any differently. Intensity is a good thing, it is needed. It is focus, it’s concentration, it’s involvement, it’s will. We want to go for it. To go to Old Trafford and winning is already a big task but in our position there aren’t a lot of alternatives to that. We have eight games to go and we need to be focused. And we will be.”