Jurgen Klopp blasted ex-Manchester United duo Gary and Phil Neville over Liverpool flop criticism

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp once defended Liverpool flop Loris Karius amid criticism from former Manchester United defenders Gary and Phil Neville.

The goalkeeper was signed by Liverpool in 2016 from Mainz by Klopp as he sought to find a new number one stopper at Anfield.

Ultimately, Karius did not become the reliable first choice stopper they had hoped, with the German guilty of several high profile errors, including two in the 2018 Champions League final as Liverpool lost 3-1 to Real Madrid.

That summer, Liverpool acted and brought in Brazilian stopper Alisson Becker for an initial £56million from Roma, and it has proved to be one of the finest transfer decisions made by Klopp in his Anfield reign.

Alisson has gone on to become a world class goalkeeper and has played a key role in Liverpool winning both the Premier League and Champions League in recent years.

Meanwhile, Karius ended up making only 49 appearances for the Reds and from 2018, spent the bulk of his time away from Anfield on loan at various clubs, including Besiktas and Union Berlin.

The goalkeeper was then released by Liverpool in 2022 and now plies his trade at fellow Premier League side Newcastle United, for whom he has played only once.

But in his early times at Liverpool, Klopp was keen to back his goalkeeper amid criticism.

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And some of that flak came from former Manchester United duo Gary and Phil Neville.

Gary claimed that Karius was "not good enough" for Liverpool if they wanted to win the Premier League, while Phil responded to the goalkeeper by saying "keep your mouth shut, do your job, go home, have your tea and play football."

But Klopp was steadfast in his defence of the German, turning the tables on the former United players.

He said: "The pundits, former players most of them, forgot completely how it felt when they got criticised. Especially the Neville brothers; the one who was the manager he obviously should know that too much criticism never helps.

"But he is not interested in helping a Liverpool player, I can imagine, but that makes the things he says not make more sense. He showed he struggled with the job to judge players so why do we let him talk about players on television?

"I don't listen to them. I am pretty sure Carra (Jamie Carragher) doesn't speak too positively about Man United players.

"Obviously, the Neville brothers don't like Liverpool. I have no problem and if they can cause bigger problems than we have already they have tried.

"By the way, you can tell him (Gary) I am not on Twitter so if he wants to tell me something Twitter doesn't help."