Jurgen Klopp hits back at Gary Neville over criticism of Loris Karius: 'The Neville brothers don't care much about Liverpool'

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Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has jumped to the defence of his goalkeeper Loris Karius in light of criticism from Gary and Phil Neville.

Karius initially came under heavy fire from former Manchester United captain Gary following a series of erratic performances for the Reds, and the goalkeeper's response in an exclusive Sportsmail interview on December 9 was not taken too kindly by Gary's younger brother, Phil.

But Klopp has swept aside comments from both of the former Manchester United players, stating neither have much care for Liverpool.

Jurgen Klopp has hit back at the comments made by Gary and Phil Neville this week

Speaking in a press conference on Monday, in the aftermath of Liverpool's draw with West Ham, Klopp said: 'My job is to protect the players as much as I can in different situations, but they are alone on the pitch, I cannot go with them and say now left and now right.

'We have to prepare ourselves as much as possible. It's a normal situation - to have criticism from outside. It's normal for me, normal for my players, normal for the goalkeepers, we all wish it would be different but it is not like this.

'I’m not surprised about it (the criticism). In my first press conference I spoke about English media, and the pundits, the former players, forgot completely how it felt when they get criticised.

'Especially the Neville brothers. I have to say the one who was a manager, he obviously should know that too much criticism never helps but he's not interested in helping a Liverpool player I can imagine.

Loris Karius has come under heavy fire from pundits recently following his erratic displays

Karius was brought in as a replacement for Simon Mignolet (centre) but is yet to convince

Klopp signed the 23-year-old during the summer window from his former club Mainz

'But that makes the things he says not more sensible. He showed he struggled with a job to judge players, why do we let them talk about players on television?  

'Obviously most of you enjoy this harsh part.

'The only thing I can do is I don't listen to them. I'm pretty sure Carra (Jamie Carragher) doesn't speak too positively about Man United players and obviously the Neville brothers don't like Liverpool.

Gary Neville criticised Karius, but Klopp defended his man by mentioning Neville's struggle to judge players during his brief spell as a manager

'If they can cause bigger problems than we already have I think they'll try it, that's all.

'He’s not interested in helping a Liverpool player. 

'By the way you can tell him I’m not on Twitter. So if he wants to tell me something Twitter doesn’t help.'

Neville later responded in part to Klopp's comments via his personal Twitter account.

Neville responded to Klopp's line by saying he isn't a chef, but knows a good steak

In line with the German manager suggesting Neville struggled with judging players during his short-lived spell as boss of Valencia, the former United captain saw the funny side of things.

'I'm not a chef but I know a good steak!,' Neville tweeted in response.