Jurgen Klopp has labelled criticism of Thiago Alcantara’s form as ‘bollocks’.
Thiago’s start to life at Liverpool suffered a difficult start with a positive Covid-19 diagnosis followed by a three-month spell out through a knee injury.
Making rash challenges has also been levelled at the Spain international, who made his 10th start for the Reds in their Champions League win at RB Leipzig.
But Klopp issued a staunch defence of Thiago ahead of the Premier League champions’ Merseyside derby showdown with Everton on Saturday evening.
“He came in late, which is just the nature of some transfers,” Klopp told Sky Sports.
“Then he got Covid, got injured, and still had to adapt to a new team – and a team which was not exactly flying with no problems at all.
“We’ve had to rebuild the team pretty much every three days because of changing the last line and changing a lot of things, so that’s just really unlucky for Thiago.
“But he has played some exceptional games and had some exceptional moments on the pitch, and he is so respected in the squad.
“It’s just a public perception. ‘Oh, Thiago is in and we don’t perform well anymore’.
“These kind of things are just bollocks, let me say it like that!
“They are just not right.”
Although the Liverpool manager continued to back last summer’s arrival from Bayern Munich, he admitted that Thiago is still adjusting to his surroundings.
He added: “Everybody needs time to adapt.
“Bayern played a different style, in a different league, and were much more dominant in the Bundesliga than any team can be in the Premier League.
“So, that’s all different. But thank God, we are all smart enough to judge the situation correctly here.
“Thiago can play better football, yes, of course, but we all can play better football. No doubt about it.”