'Welcome to my planet': Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp moves to clear up recent Burnley comments

The German was recently speaking to 7,000 Liverpool fans during a test event for the expanded Anfield Road end at Anfield.

During his speech, Klopp was asked about Liverpool’s Christmas plans.

Klopp is a big critic of England’s traditional festive period given the number of games played over a relatively short period of time.

“It’s England, nobody gives a s*** about my Christmas,” Klopp joked.

"Honestly, the schedule is again crazy. Our Christmas the family will be over on the 24th, it will be great. The 25th we will have training. I think we will train early in the morning and then the boys can go home and have Christmas lunch with their families.

“Then what do you know? On the 26th we drive to Burnley – great place to celebrate Christmas!”

In Klopp’s defence, he quickly made it clear he was joking, adding: “Tomorrow in the Daily Mail, it’s going to be ‘Klopp said...’. Oh my god.

"But no we have minutes of Christmas and we will cherish them and celebrate them and then it’s all fine.

"Nobody in this country wants to miss Boxing Day, so it means we will be on the motorway.”

Klopp’s comments caused some controversy on social media, sparking headlines as a result – with his line taken as a perceived dig at the town of Burnley.

But the Reds boss clarified that was not the case, having been asked about his comments during a press conference.

“No, it was 100 per cent true,” he joked.

“My god. I’ll invite you a little bit in my life. The situation, at night, I come into our stadium.

“Kids are playing at Anfield. When I arrive, they score a goal and 7,000 people go bonkers. I’ve thought, ‘Oh my god, how nice is that?’ So that was my mood when I arrived.

“Then Pete (McDowall, the host of the Q&A) asks me questions. A minute after I finished, I think I said it into the mic. ‘Tomorrow it will be all the headlines!’ But I didn’t think for a second it was serious.

“I said a lot of stuff, I’m a real idiot and I help you a lot with these things! The question around that was about our Christmas. I said, “Who cares here about my Christmas?” Nobody does really. Yours [the journalists] as well, by the way!

“In that moment, I didn’t know we played Burnley. Obviously I know when we play Burnley but in that specific moment I was not there and didn’t have the schedule. ‘I don’t know, where do we play?’ He said: ‘Burnley.’ ‘Oh, great place to be.’

“If he had said London, I would have said, ‘Great place to be!’ If he would have said Fiji, I would have said, ‘Great place to be,’ because we play football there and I wouldn’t have been with my family.

“The family of one of my best friends is from Burnley. Just to make sure, I have no issue with that city! If anybody thought I have, then he might have an issue with Burnley. I don’t know, I have nothing (against them).

“I go there for playing football, like I go in all other cities. I never saw a bit of Burnley besides the stadium. Did I always enjoy being in that stadium? No, because they gave us some hard fights but that’s it. Again, welcome to my planet.”