Didi Hamann thinks someone at Liverpool needs to have “the bottle to tell” Jurgen Klopp to apologise to The Athletic journalist James Pearce.
Klopp was in a spiky mood following the Reds’ 3-0 defeat to Liverpool over the weekend and Pearce took the brunt of his frustration in the post-match press conference.
He refused to answer Pearce’s question and asked if another journalist could ask the same thing and he would answer.
Klopp said: “It’s very difficult to talk to you if I’m 100 percent honest. I would prefer not to do that.
“You know why, for all the things you wrote. So If somebody else wanted to ask that question then I’ll answer it.”
But former Liverpool midfielder Hamann thinks Klopp was in the wrong and suggested that the Reds boss was bullying Pearce.
Hamann told talkSPORT: “I found it very strange and petty and what he has to realise is that James Pearce and his family get bombarded with abusive messages since that incident because Klopp didn’t answer a question.
“It was a perfectly good question to ask him and I think the least James deserves is an apology. Liverpool is a club that is based on respect and I think someone has to tell [Klopp] ‘This is Liverpool Football Club and you can’t do this.’
“We have campaigns against bullying and you can’t have the Liverpool manager behave the way he did.
“I feel nobody at the club has the bottle to tell him, which I think they should. The way things are going at the moment, these things don’t help him and they certainly don’t help the club, which is above everything else.
“You can’t have a situation where the manager disrespects a very well respected journalist like he did to James Pearce.”
Klopp described the loss to Wolves as the “pinnacle” of the problems Liverpool have been facing as they dropped down to tenth after Chelsea drew 0-0 against Fulham on Friday night.
“Today was the pinnacle of our problems,” Klopp said. “In a game like this it is absolutely not allowed. You can criticise, judge us and you are probably right. These first 12 minutes are not allowed.
“The start to the game was horrible. It was the opposite of what we should do. I can’t explain it, it cannot happen. We caused the problems ourselves. We do it in public, that’s why everyone can see.
“How can I not be concerned? I cannot sit here and think we did well. The first 12 minutes is not allowed and we did it anyway.
“I don’t think they are their best at the moment but I know how good they are. These things happen because we cannot help ourselves in this moment. I don’t lose confidence in the boys but I see where we have to improve.
“It makes it typical of the situation. At the moment it’s always if, if if.
“The team is not full of confidence, you can see that, but the first 12 minutes is about defending, being compact and active. Do you need a lot of confidence for that? I’m not so sure.”
