Klopp insists there is no rift with Lampard

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp insists there is no rivalry between him and Frank Lampard as their teams prepare to meet on Sunday.

The relationship between the two managers has filled plenty of column inches in recent months, with Chelsea boss Lampard accusing Klopp’s coaching team of arrogance after their last Premier League meeting at Anfield.

Klopp further fanned the flames last week when he appeared to aim a dig at Chelsea’s ownership model and spending this season, claiming Liverpool had to operate in different ways.

But speaking at a press conference on Friday ahead of this weekend’s intriguing Premier League clash, Reds manager Klopp said there was no animosity.

“I can’t help with the rivalry, I have no problem, not at all, with Frank Lampard,” he said.

“When you ask me a question and I answer it, everyone takes it how they want to take it.

“It might be a language issue or whatever, you all make a story that I said something about the transfer behaviour of Chelsea.

“What I said was, in the situation we are in we can’t deal with the situation like other clubs, one of them was Chelsea maybe, I don’t know.

“Then you make a story about it and then you make a rivalry between Frank Lampard and me when we meet two or three times a year.

“I respect a lot what he is doing. He is probably a really nice guy, I don’t know because I don’t know him in private.

“On the sideline we are quite animated and emotional and sometimes you say things you shouldn’t, but that’s life and that’s how football is. There is nothing more than that.”

Liverpool have no fresh injury concerns for the trip.