Why Jurgen Klopp could get a touchline ban and miss Liverpool goodbye
Jurgen Klopp’s emotional farewell to Liverpool fans has been anticipated ever since he announced he would be stepping down as manager at the end of the season back in January.
Yet that goodbye may now be in danger as he faces the threat of a touchline ban ahead of the Reds’s season finale against Wolves at Anfield on Sunday.
Why could Jurgen Klopp face a touchline ban?
If Klopp gets a yellow card for his behaviour on the touchline during Liverpool’s clash with Aston Villa this evening, then an automatic one-match touchline ban would be triggered as it would be his third of the campaign.
Any manager who is booked three times across the course of a Premier League season is banished from the sidelines for the following match, meaning the German would not be permitted in the dugout for the Wolves clash.
He would still be allowed to manage the game from the Anfield stands, and could do a lap of honour around the pitch after the final whistle, but he wouldn’t be coaching from the touchline for the course of the 90 minutes.
That means keeping his cool for the duration of the Villa match, and staying on the right side of referee Simon Hooper, is paramount but Klopp didn’t sound too worried when speaking at his pre-match press conference.
He said: “I’ve known that for a long time [he could be banned]. We could turn it around and say I’ve only had two yellow cards all season. A few of my colleagues got suspended, right?
“I got calmer over the years, obviously. I don’t need to be [on the touchline for the final day], but it would be cool. I will try absolutely everything to not get involved in any kind of ‘discussions’.”
Klopp will leave Liverpool this summer after nearly nine years at the helm and in his stunning January announcement that shocked the football world, he explained that he had simply run out of energy and plans to take a break from the sport.
“It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy,” he said at the time. “I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again.
“After the years we had together and after all the time we spent together and after all the things we went through together, the respect grew for you, the love grew for you and the least I owe you is the truth – and that is the truth. That’s it, pretty much.”
Liverpool looked as if they may give Klopp the perfect send-off when they won the Carabao Cup at Wembley and were on course for another three trophies that would have sealed a historic quadruple.
However, they have faltered on all fronts over the past few weeks, slipping out of the Premier League title hunt, losing an FA Cup quarter-final thriller to Manchester United and crashing out of the Europa League to Atalanta at the last-eight stage.
Regardless, his legacy at Anfield was already secure and Reds fans will now be desperate for him to avoid a last-gasp ban, so they can pay proper tribute to their hero on home turf on Sunday.
