Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp snapped at BT Sport regarding his Brazilian absentees ahead of Saturday's trip to Watford. Klopp is without Alisson and Fabinho at Vicarage Road as the Premier League returns after the international break.
In his pre-match interview, Klopp cut a frustrated figure after being asked if the key Brazilian duo could've made his squad.
No, it was because we play at 12:30, and there is no chance we could play them, so that's when we thought we then set them to [Madrid].
"It's not that we thought 'oh let's see'. If we would've played tonight, we could've given it a try, but we play at 12:30, so there was no chance.
"Who was it [who had] the idea to bring us at 12:30? Was it Watford? If you [BT] wouldn't have said it, we would've had to reply. Ah yeah, thank you for your help, really, thank you, thank you very much."
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BT Sport host Jake Humphrey questioned whether Klopp had the right to defend his team amid a hotly-contested title fight.
"Isn't he just protecting his team?" Humphrey asked.
"He was moaning about Joe Gomez not getting selected for England, and John Stones did, [and] he obviously had a pop at the u21s for an injury to Curtis Jones.
"You can understand all of this because he just wants Liverpool to win games of football and win the league."
Joe Cole, appearing as a pundit, didn't agree with Klopp's behaviour and defended his colleague, interviewer Des Kelly.
He said: "I don't know why he's continuing. It's very clear to me, and we both dealt with it as we played, that you're the 12:30 kick-offs when you're playing for one of the bigger clubs.
"You're going to be that more often than not because you sell the TV rights because [viewers] want to see Liverpool, they want to see Manchester United, so I don't know why it's a problem.
"He's very spikey, especially with Des, [I'm] not sure what Des has done."