Recent comments from Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp on their COVID-19 ‘outbreak’ have left rival fans on Twitter absolutely furious.
Liverpool’s proposed Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg clash with Arsenal was postponed last week after the Reds made the decision, after consulting with Public Health England, to close down the AXA Training Centre.
Merely a few days later after Liverpool were apparently unable to field a team against the Gunners, Klopp managed to field a starting eleven and name nine substitutes for their FA Cup win over Shrewsbury.
That had fans scratching their heads, with these post-match comments from the Liverpool manager only intensifying the confusion within the football community on social media…
Klopp: “We thought we had a proper outbreak last week and it showed up we had a lot of false positives actually, but the rule are like they are. The false positives couldn’t play today. We had to make that decision. Only real positive was Trent. Tough week.”
— Paul Gorst (@ptgorst) January 9, 2022
Or : We faked positives so as to avoid going to emirates. Now that the games is postponed we are all fit and hungry
— Arsenal ANØØP (@ArsenalAnoop) January 9, 2022
A rapid test will give a false positive (FP) result less than 1% of the time.
The highest percentage of FP I’ve seen for studies of PCR test is 16.7%. The majority of studies showing <4.0%
Someone isn’t being truthful…
— Chris Pearson (@zebra100cp) January 9, 2022
In other words:
“We are cheats and are too scared to play Arsenal without our one and only, Mohamed Salah”
— 𝖘𝖍𝖆𝖒𝖊𝖑𝖊𝖘𝖘𝖌𝖔𝖔𝖓𝖊𝖗 (@shamelessgooner) January 9, 2022
What a shock!
So obvious what Liverpool were doing, will now have their injured players back for the tie
— Micky AFC (@micky_sims) January 9, 2022
One false positive is understandable..
… however multiple incorrect results (enough to be considered an outbreak) is indicative of something else ..
Was the batch of tests used faulty, expired or contaminated?
— 𝕍𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕝♣ (@Verrolx) January 9, 2022
Total gamesmanship, not unexpected of liverpool but I had previously thought more of Klopp. My mistake. He has become infected by ScouseItis. Disgusting behaviour.
— Matt 🏴 🇮🇪 (@matt_saunders_) January 9, 2022
Congrats to Liverpool on gaming the system so you’ll have better players available for the matches after Shrewsbury. Excellent work
— I Hate It Here (@TheMattShow365) January 9, 2022
MORE: Manchester United lashes out at “bad journalism” linking him with transfer to European giants
There are hundreds of more comments comparable in nature, all accusing Liverpool of outright cheating or exploiting the rules in order to have the maximum amount of players available for the fixture.
In reality, Liverpool made the right decision to close the training ground as a precaution, irrespective of how many ACTUAL positive cases they believed to have within the squad and staff.
Still, we wouldn’t expect the Arsenal fans to buy that. Liverpool will have more players available for when the two sides meet in the first-leg, so there’s no denying this has played out favourably for Klopp.
