Pundit and former Chelsea striker Chris Sutton has slammed Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp for his excuses following Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Fulham at Craven Cottage.
The Reds fell behind twice to goals from Aleksandar Mitrovic, including a penalty given away by Virgil van Dijk.
Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah salvaged a point for Klopp's side, but it was not the desired start to what will likely be a long season challenging Manchester City for the title.
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The German manager came out after the match, and blamed some of the performance on the ‘dry pitch’ prepared by Fulham ground staff.
"The best thing about the game is the result," Klopp told BT Sport after the draw.
"A really bad game. How can that happen? The attitude was not right in the beginning. We tried to react after 15 minutes. The pitch was dry, stuff like this. Really difficult.”
Sutton criticised the German in the Daily Mail, calling it one of ‘football’s worst excuses.
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“Jurgen Klopp suggesting Liverpool were held back by a dry pitch at Fulham is up there with football’s worst excuses."
"Like many bosses, Klopp is armed with a list of excuses when things don’t go his team’s way. Sometimes, a head coach should just say it as it is."
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The German does have a knack for producing some of the games’ best excuses to deflect blame from his team - who can forget when he blamed the wind, or two Alisson mistakes on his ‘cold feet’.
It’s clearly a tactic to distract his own players and the media to ensure less pressure is on them, and it was also used regularly by the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger among others.
Klopp will hope the pitch will be wet enough when his side faces Crystal Palace on Monday night at Anfield, before an early season trip to Old Trafford where his side won 5-0 last season.
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Topics: Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool, Chelsea
Chris Stonadge