Jurgen Klopp has blamed ‘flagrant decisions by the referees’ as the reason Liverpool failed to win the Premier League last season, but believes the Citizens ‘deserve’ their success.
Pep Guardiola’s side overtook the Reds for the title on the final day of the season after coming from behind to beat Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa 3-2 at the Etihad.
The Sky Blues needed to beat or match Liverpool’s result on the final day and they succeeded, winning their eighth top-flight title by a single point.
But Klopp believes that if some of the referees’ decisions had gone in his team’s favor during the season, it might have been the Merseysiders lifting their 20th title.
“I have no problem with anyone from City. They deserved it as much as we deserved it,” Klopp told Sport 1 (via Metro).
“What comes up at a time like that: there were some things that happened during the season when some things went against us, so I was thinking about the [final] day, let us hope that in the end it will not be decisive.
“And then you forget about it again and you don’t think about it. There were really flagrant arbitration decisions. You keep thinking, what went in our favor?
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“Completely without club glasses. Once we were lucky that we were not penalized. But we were already winning 2-0. Otherwise…nothing.
“And against us? Clear handball penalties, penalties not sanctioned. Clear red cards that are not given against us, so for the opponent. That comes up right now. It is human to think for a moment. But I don’t wear that for long.
“No matter how Manchester City get the result, I accepted it, they deserved it. And the other way around quite the same.
“And I can say: I would be sitting here today and I wouldn’t feel any different if I had become champion and won the Champions League for the second time.”
Opposition supporters will likely claim that this is another case of Klopp spitting on his doll.
However, he admitted that City deserved to be champions, and he’s just being honest about how he feels last season went.
Despite the disappointing end to the season, we had a great campaign and won both domestic cups and reached the Champions League final against Real Madrid in Paris.
We missed out on the two trophies we would have liked to win at the start of the season, but it was still a memorable campaign.
We had high hopes of going one step further in the English top flight this time, but if our start to the campaign is anything to go by then it’s not looking good.
However, top table Arsenal are just six points ahead of us and the reigning Champions City are just five points above us.
It’s still early and we won’t go down without a fight!
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