Manuel Pellegrini cements himself as fan favorite, tells Klopp off

West Ham somehow outplayed a title-racing Liverpool side despite massive injuries and a skill gap many have stumbled in front of. That being said, Klopp still found a way to whine and complain. Manuel Pellegrini was having none of it, though and calls out the complainer to his face.

Very few times in life does a picture so perfectly capture what you’re talking about, but the cover photo for this blog does just that. Manuel Pellegrini’s time in East London has been tumultuous, to say the least, but not really his fault so far. Now with him blatantly calling out Klopp, he’ll have the supporters behind him even more so.

The issue: two blatant offside misses, one that resulted in the opening goal and another that almost saw Liverpool steal the win as the added time had already expired.

Sadio Mane’s goal was a great finish on “sleeping” defenders but when you look at the play James Milner was 3 years offside! To make it worse, the linesman was clearly focused on the ball rather than on the play in general and had no idea Milner was even there.

What compounds issues and really intensifies the insanity of this match is Jurgen Klopp and Virgil van Dyke complaining to the referees after the game.

It’s obviously what Pellegrini was so fired up about after the game. How can you even claim for a second that you were hard done by when you scored an offside goal and had a chance to win it with another missed offside?!

West Ham’s charming man, Pellegrini, pulled no punches after the game stating

"“Klopp is used to winning goals offside. He scored a winner against me with Borussia Dortmund which was seven meters offside so he cannot complain about nothing.”"

Be still my heart! I’ve never been so proud of my manager. None of this polite talk to the cameras and complimenting each other after a hard-fought draw or wishing each other well on camera. Pellegrini told it how it was and is 100% in the right for his comments.

What might have also fuelled Pellegrini’s fire was the lack of respect Klopp showed him and the West Ham coaching staff by running on the pitch after the refs before showing respect to your opposition by shaking hands. It may just be pageantry but win, lose, or draw, there always needs to be recognition given to your opposition on the pitch.

He’s building a system and a project that will take time to show true, consistent dividends but Pellegrini is galvanizing the supporters week after week. This week he showed it isn’t just the performance on the pitch that counts, but sticking up for your team in all aspects of the game.