Jurgen Klopp has hailed Raheem Sterling for his ‘right response’ to alleged racist abuse.
Chelsea suspended four fans pending an investigation into behaviour directed at the England international during Manchester City’s 2-0 defeat last weekend.
The Metropolitan Police are also probing the incident, which Sterling later accused the media of helping fuel racism with its portrayal of black players.
But Klopp believes that the former Liverpool winger, 24, handled the matter at Stamford Bridge in the best possible fashion.
He said: “I watched the game and I think I saw the situation where he went for the corner and the few guys were shouting. I didn’t hear.
“I don’t know if it was possible to, but I thought his reaction was just brilliant. You saw his face. He gave the right response not to react to these people.
“I am obviously not surprised that these things still happen and they will not stop only because we talk about them, but I like the fact we put the finger on it and say you cannot say what you want.
“We had similar situations in Germany and other countries, Italy with [Kevin Prince] Boateng when he stopped the game because of the things people shouted from the stands.
“There need to be punishments for things like this. As long as people are silly enough to do this, they need to be punished for it, that’s how it is.
“What I like is, I am sure 95% of people are not like this, so we should try to find the right amount of attention for them.
“Punish them but do not talk too much about them because they do not deserve that we talk about them.”