‘Welcome to my planet’ – Jurgen Klopp upset over reaction to his Burnley comments

Jurgen Klopp has played down claims he fired a dig at Burnley ahead of Liverpool’s meeting with Vincent Kompany’s side on Boxing Day.

Klopp was speaking at a recent test event for the newly-refurbished Anfield Road end of the Reds’ home ground.

The German tactician, who has previously criticised English football’s festive programme, was asked about his Christmas plans.

The Liverpool boss replied in a way that could have been construed as sarcasm: “It’s England, nobody gives a s*** about my Christmas. Honestly, the schedule is again crazy. Our Christmas, the family will be over on the 24th, it will be great.

“The 25th we will have training. I think we will train early in the morning and then the boys can go home and have Christmas lunch with their families.

“Then what do you know? On the 26th we drive to Burnley – great place to celebrate Christmas. Nobody in this country wants to miss Boxing Day, so it means we will be on the motorway.”

Klopp’s comments went down like a lead balloon in Burnley, leaving the Reds boss no option but to clarify his comments.

“The moment I said it, I thought tomorrow it will be all headlines but I didn’t think for a moment it would be like this,” a frustrated Klopp told reporters on Friday.

“The question was ‘what will be your Christmas?’ and I said ‘who cares about my Christmas nobody does, really.’

“At that moment I didn't know when we were playing Burnley, I didn’t have the schedule.

“He [interviewer] said ‘Burnley’ so I said 'great place to be.’

“If he’d have said London, I’d have said, great place to be because we play football there and I wouldn’t be with my family.

“The family of one of my best friends is from Burnley just to make sure I have no issues with it. I go there for football like I do