Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has hit back at Jurgen Klopp’s comments over the amount of penalties Manchester United are awarded compared to Liverpool.
Klopp felt aggrieved that Sadio Mane was twice denied a spot-kick in his side’s 1-0 loss over Southampton on Monday night and after the game, brought up the volume of penalties that United are given.
‘I hear now that Manchester United had more penalties in two years than I had in five and a half years,’ Klopp said. ‘I’ve no idea if that’s my fault, or how that can happen.’
The German boss wasn’t too far off, with United earning 42 penalties since Solskjaer took over at Old Trafford in December 2018, while Liverpool have only been awarded 46 spot-kicks from when Klopp arrived at Anfield in October 2015, over three years earlier.
And Solskjaer has snapped back by suggesting managers only mention United’s penalty count in an attempt to influence referees.
‘And that’s a fact, probably! That’s probably going to be my answer,’ the Norwegian boss said ahead of the Red Devils’ Carabao Cup semi-final against Manchester City on Wednesday.
‘That’s a fact that we’ve got more than him, but maybe they should…I don’t know how many penalties they’ve had.
‘I don’t count how many penalties they have, so if they want to spend time on worrying about when we get fouled in the box, I don’t spend time on that.
‘I can’t talk on behalf of other managers, why they say things like this.’
Solskjaer referenced a decision that he feels was overlooked in last season’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea following Frank Lampard’s comments about United’s number of penalties in the build-up to the game.
‘Obviously I felt it worked last year in the semi-final in the FA Cup, because Frank spoke about it and we had a nailed-on penalty that we should have had that we didn’t get, so maybe it’s a way of influencing referees,’ he added.
‘I don’t know, but I don’t worry about that. When they foul our players it’s a penalty. It’s just when it’s inside the box.’
MORE : How many penalties have Manchester United been given to warrant Jurgen Klopp complaint?
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