One of the Premier League’s longest running feuds has reared its head once again in the aftermath of Burnley’s defeat to Liverpool on Saturday. Reds boss Jurgen Klopp was left unhappy by the Clarets physical approach to the game, which referee Mike Dean allowed to go unpunished.
Klopp has since been widely derided for the comments in which he compared Burnley’s tactics to wrestling.
“[Playing Burnley] is really special, really specific and [they are] very aggressive. It was a tough game, an intense game, how it always is against Burnley,” Klopp said.
“The intensity of the game was incredible, especially the centre-halves, the refs give you nothing, the strikers are constantly in your body, you jump, you get down, it was a proper test today.”
Burnley boss Sean Dyche fired back at his Liverpool counterpart, blasting Klopp for his “inappropriate” name-checking of Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood.
“We have professional players who have worked very, very hard to get to where they have got to and the implication of them being untoward in some of their challenges is wrong,” Dyche said.
JUST IN: Sean Dyche tears into ‘inappropriate’ Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp
The Burnley boss claimed that he simply said “well done” to Klopp following Liverpool’s win, but the German continued to make his complaints about the Clarets in his press conference.
“I said to the referee after the first sliding tackle [made] over six or seven yards, when he got the ball and everyone liked it: ‘Please, tell them they cannot do that’,” said Klopp.
“It wasn’t a foul but they cannot do that. It’s like bowling because then four or five times it happened.”
The duo clashed again last season when Burnley ended Liverpool’s 68-game unbeaten home run in the Premier League with a 1-0 win in a tempestuous clashed.
An on-field scuffle broke out at half-time, with Fabinho booked after appearing to kick out at match winner Barnes, before Klopp and Dyche had another heated exchange in the tunnel.
Klopp refused to comment on the bust-up, but Dyche dropped a heavy hint that the German had once again been unhappy with Burnley’s tactics.
“You know when we come to these places, we are allowed to actually fight. We are allowed to actually try to win,” he told Sky Sports of the incident.
“That’s all it was. A couple of things got said. It was absolutely nothing that should be out of the norm. It was just two managers fighting for their teams, wanting to win a game.”
With Burnley’s tactics having proven so effective in keeping them in the Premier League, this is a feud which shows no sign of ending anytime soon.