FRANK LAMPARD BELIEVES Liverpool’s backroom staff broke football’s touchline code when he launched his foul-mouthed Anfield tirade at the opposition’s bench.
Champions Liverpool saw off Chelsea 5-3 on Merseyside on Wednesday night, lifting the Premier League trophy afterwards and relishing in raucous celebrations.
Lampard had launched a string of expletives at the Liverpool bench when reacting to Sadio Mane winning the free-kick that led to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s first-half goal.
The Stamford Bridge boss later warned Liverpool not to “get too arrogant” in interviews after the fiery clash, but insists he has no issues with Anfield boss Jurgen Klopp, or the Reds’ title celebrations.
Hinting at frustration with the involvement of Liverpool assistant Pep Lijnders, Lampard explained his view that touchline dialogue ought to be confined to just the two managers.
Asked to detail touchline etiquette, Lampard said: “What is the code? I think when you speak between managers, and there are lots of decisions that go and you can hear it more clearly now without the crowd. And lots of managers will call for decisions and it may be right or wrong. And then you speak with each other.
“But when people on the bench jump up and want to speak across to myself and then smirk and smile and then continue to do so for quite a while; I think that is past the code.”
Lampard warned Liverpool not to become “arrogant” in his post-match interviews at Anfield, sparking later defences from his counterpart Klopp that the Reds remain grounded despite their successes.
Expanding on his arrogance comment, Lampard qualified his position by focusing on respect.
“I think arrogance is a very important quality in terms of how you attack a football match as a player, in terms of how you attack a football match as a manager,” said Lampard, ahead of Chelsea’s final Premier League clash against Wolves at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
“Because you will be full of expectations around you, criticism of anything you do that might be seen as being wrong or not quite right.
“And if you don’t have a level of arrogance in what you do, you can be affected negatively and you might not be able to do your job as well.
“What I think also when you talk about arrogance is respect, and when you are in a role at a club or whether you are talking about how benches work – and I could speak to Jurgen Klopp all day and could fight the corner of a decision or performance of a referee – what my feeling was the bench at Liverpool, or one person in particular, was absolutely crossing that line so that became arrogant to me.”
Revealing his regret at his unsavoury language, Lampard insisted he has no issue with Klopp.
“I haven’t contacted Liverpool, I shook Jurgen Klopp’s hand at the end and said, ‘well done’ and I would easily have sat and had a beer with him and congratulated him on what an incredible job he has done,” said Lampard.
“I know how hard it is to win a Premier League, I know how much work goes into it. He’s been there four or five years and the journey and the work has been incredible.
“He deserves everything. That was nothing to do with him. What happened on the line can happen a fair bit.
“With cameras and microphones it was in full view and I regret the language that I used. I couldn’t help the passion that I felt.
“It wasn’t a foul as I saw it but even then I shouldn’t be swearing but I had an issue with some of the staff and it was against the code of how it world on the bench.
“In terms of my daughters, they haven’t pulled me on it. I know it’s a nice story to say that my daughters told me off, but it wasn’t that way.”
In response, Klopp said: “We are not arrogant.
Frank was in a really competitive mood and I respect that a lot. In this sort of situation you can say pretty much what you want. For me, after the game it is over. I said a lot in the past because it is pure emotion. He came here to win or get a point to make the Champions League qualification.
“But what he has to learn is to finish it with the final whistle and he didn’t do that. Speaking afterwards about it like this, that’s not OK. Frank has to learn this, and he has a lot of time to learn as he is a young coach, but that is what he has to learn.
“In a moment like this, in an argument, you want to say something to hurt the other person. I have no problem with that but at the final whistle close the book and he didn’t do that and that is what I don’t like.”
