No backtrack on Everton penalty for Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp insists he cannot change his emotional responses and he has not changed his mind about Everton’s penalty at the weekend.

The Reds boss came under scrutiny after a tetchy television interview minutes after Everton secured a 1-1 draw at Anfield on Sunday with a spot-kick he felt should not have been given. Klopp’s cantankerous mood did not improve in his press conference later, when his request for a show of hands from those who disagreed with him was met with the majority of the room responding.

However, the German insists he was just offering a genuine response and has no regrets.

“I would give the same interview now. The information I had to give would be the same, but now I am completely relaxed, but it was five minutes after the game and I was not relaxed,” he said. “It is always the same, you look into the eyes of the journalist and see he is not interested what you feel and sometimes that feels not that cool. That is why I reacted why I reacted.

“It is nothing, I didn’t use any words I have to take back. I don’t like it, but I am pretty sure I cannot change it, because I felt like this in this moment and I am not an actor, I cannot act differently.”

Part of Klopp’s frustrations were rooted in the fact he felt the side he put out — with Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino on the bench as two of six changes — should have done enough to beat their neighbours. So far he has made 59 changes to his starting 11 this season. Only Manchester United in 2002 have made more in Premier League history at this stage of the campaign.

“If we had the squad last year, we would have done it last year,” added Klopp, who will make more changes for the visit of West Brom.

“When you get injuries in November, what we had last year, then you cannot rotate in December, because the players are not there and then you suffer in January. It is not really to change and the players come back in January who were injured in November, but they were not in the same shape as November.

“For all these games, I really think if we have the quality in the squad, that we have we have to use it.”