Paul Tierney might have been expecting to once again feel the wrath of Jürgen Klopp as the clock ticked down at the City Ground. It may well have come as a shock to him then to instead find himself surrounded by Nottingham Forest’s coaching staff, and the club’s owner, at full-time.
The hosts were left fuming when Liverpool managed to snatch a 1-0 win in the 99th minute thanks to Darwin Núñez’s late, late header. Forest felt they should have been handed the ball back after play was stopped following a head injury to Ibrahima Konaté, with the Reds going on to grab the winner deep into stoppage time.
Yet it wasn’t long before Tierney was being chased down the tunnel by a fuming Evangelos Marinakis that the referee was being chastised by Klopp on the sideline. The Liverpool boss was left particularly infuriated after Conor Bradley was judged to have committed a foul on the right flank.
Klopp’s outburst almost landed him in hot water when Tierney was beckoned over to speak to the Reds manager, while Pep Lijnders tried to calm his boss down. Klopp escaped with just a talking-to, and he might well be breathing a sigh of relief that it didn’t escalate any further.
Had he received a yellow card, Klopp would have found himself banned from the touchline for Liverpool’s next league game. You won’t need reminding that Manchester City visits Anfield next weekend, and that could have presented a nightmare scenario.
Premier League managers face a touchline ban for picking up three yellow cards, as opposed to the five players need for a suspension. Klopp went into the Forest clash sitting on two, having been booked against Luton and Burnley this season (as per Football365).
Had he picked up a third at Forest, Liverpool would have been left without its manager in the dugout against Pep Guardiola’s side. As it is though, Klopp will go head-to-head with his counterpart for the final time in the Premier League before the German departs in the summer.
