‘One person crossed the line on Liverpool’s bench’ – Lampard says ‘arrogance’ is fine but still unhappy with Reds staff

Frank Lampard has further explained his spat with the Liverpool coaching staff in midweek, saying that ‘arrogance’ is an important trait in winners and honed in on the Reds backroom team rather than Jurgen Klopp as the target of his criticism.

Lampard’s side are chasing a point against Wolves to get in the Premier League top four on the final day and qualify for the Champions League, but the manager had to further explain his comments which have caused a stir on Merseyside.

“When you are in a role at a club or whether you are talking about how benches work, what my feeling was the bench at Liverpool, or one person in particular, was absolutely crossing that line so that became arrogant to me,” Lampard clarified.

“I haven’t contacted Liverpool. I shook Jurgen Klopp’s hand at the end and said ‘well done’ and I would easily have sat and had a beer with him and congratulated him on what an incredible job he has done.

“I know how hard it is to win a Premier League, I know how much work goes into it. He’s been there four or five years and the journey and the work has been incredible. He deserves everything. That row was nothing to do with him. What happened on the line can happen a fair bit.

“With cameras and microphones it was in full view and I regret the language that I used. I couldn’t help the passion that I felt. It wasn’t a foul as I saw it but even then I shouldn’t be swearing, but I had an issue with some of the staff and it was against the code of how it world on the bench.”

Subsequently, Lampard was further asked on what the code of conduct should be in the heated enviornment of top level football: “What is the code? I think when you speak between managers, and there are lots of decisions that go and you can hear it more clearly now without the crowd.

“Lots of managers will call for decisions and it may be right or wrong, and then you speak with each other, but when people on the bench jump up and want to speak across to me and then smirk and smile and then continue to do so for quite a while, I think that is past the code.”

Before becoming a manager, Lampard won 11 major honours as a player in the most successful time in Chelsea‘s history, giving him legendary status with the fans.

Lampard is comfortable with having both a level of arrogance and an edge to try to succeed in his aims to get the Blues back to where they were when he was a player for the club.

“I think arrogance is a very important quality in terms of how you attack a football match as a player, in terms of how you attack a football match as a manager, because you will be aware of expectations around you, criticism of anything you do that might be seen as being wrong or not quite right,” he said.

“If you don’t have a level of arrogance in what you do, you can be affected negatively and you might not be able to do your job as well. I do have an edge. I would not have been able to play for Chelsea for so long in a team that was fighting for Premier League or Champions League winners in pretty much every season I was here.

“I have seen people around me who have an edge. I can’t stand there and demand an edge from my players and not have that in myself to try to drive the club forward, but it was not the right way to do it with the language I used.

“It can happen in the game. I have huge respect for Jurgen Klopp. I shook his hand at the end. It had nothing to do with what Liverpool Football Club had done. I applaud them to the highest degree no matter what the result would have been the other day. It was an in-game moment from me.

“You can probably find a rap sheet for all managers in the game because we are in a very high pressured job and we want to do well for our team. I would expect, and I don’t like my language, but I would expect if I was a Chelsea fan or Liverpool fan or Man United fan, you want people to care as much as the fans do.

“When a decision goes against me and it is 25 yards from goal and I know that Trent is going to put it in the top corner, then you feel a bit silly afterwards and I had a small smile at that point. I knew that was a pivotal moment for my team in the game that I knew was wrong. We had a lot on the game.”