Jurgen Klopp and Erik ten Hag have warned supporters against tragedy chanting ahead of Sunday’s Premier League fixture between Manchester United and Liverpool.
A man was charged in relation to tragedy chanting following last month’s FA Cup quarter-final tie between the two sides after video footage was shared of a fan in the home section of the Old Trafford crowd. A number of arrests were also made by Greater Manchester Police following a variety of alleged offences.
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Liverpool and United have since launched a joint initiative aimed at educating youngsters on the impact of chanting about Hillsborough, Heysel and Munich. Both clubs have vowed to issue bans to anyone committing tragedy-related abuse, whether in stadiums or online.
Klopp urged supporters to “show a bit of class”, while Ten Hag called on fans to “focus entirely on backing their team”.
“It is super important,” Klopp said. “There are different aspects to this and one is I don’t hear it, honestly, when I am on the sideline. But I heard after the game that it happened and it obviously is not great.
“In general it is just helpful that we educate our kids in specific things: respect, understanding, all these things.
“I just see two of the biggest clubs in the world, so let’s just show a bit of class in these moments, don’t sing this or sing that. Just show class, let the teams fight on the pitch, let’s play football. Besides that, just show a bit of class, that would be my wish for all of us.”
Ten Hag’s programme notes for Sunday’s game also address tragedy chanting.
“It is part of my duty to remind every supporter fortunate enough to be at today’s game that it must be enjoyed in the proper way, and not used as an excuse for abusing rival fans about Hillsborough, Heysel or any other historic tragedies,” the United manager wrote.
“This is one of the truly great rivalries in world sport, for so many of the right reasons, and it is our responsibility to keep it that way.
“Whether the clubs meet at Old Trafford or Anfield, all supporters must focus entirely on backing their team and both Jurgen and I trust that we can count on that happening today”.
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Liverpool returned to the top of the Premier League with Thursday’s 3-1 win over Sheffield United and sit 22 points ahead of sixth-placed United, but were beaten by Ten Hag’s side in last month’s the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Asked what he had learned from Liverpool’s 4-3 extra-time defeat, Klopp referenced his spat with a Danish reporter after seeing his side squander 2-1 and 3-2 leads.
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“What did I learn? That the 10th interview is not as good as the ninth to give after the game! The story of the game was they started better and then we took over. We were really good that day but we didn’t finish the situations off,” he continued.
“Extra time was too much for us and we couldn’t avoid the mistakes we could before (in normal time). It was the day we couldn’t control it any more and United turned the game around.
“We have to do what we did from minute 15 to 70 something. We have to find a way to cause United problems. They will try the same. Against this opponent, in this stadium, we better play a really good game if we want something from it.”
Sunday will be Klopp’s final game against United as Liverpool manager before he steps down at the end of the season.
“Will I miss these games? No, I had them often enough,” he said. “What a manager I would be if I said I’ll miss the United games or the City games and all the others I won’t. It is all fine. I will miss probably all of them but we will see how I deal with missing football.”
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(Stu Forster/Getty Images)