Jurgen Klopp explains James Milner and Virgil van Dijk bust-up

Jurgen Klopp has cleared up James Milner’s bust-up with Virgil van Dijk during Liverpool’s defeat at Manchester United on Monday.

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Milner berated Van Dijk on the pitch for his part in United’s opening goal – scored by Jadon Sancho – and was seen raging at the Netherlands centre-back as Liverpool fell to 16th in the Premier League table after a poor start to the season.

In the build up to Sancho’s goal at Old Trafford, Van Dijk had stayed in a central position in front of Liverpool’s goal with both hands behind his back, which allowed the United winger to pick his spot with a side-footed finish.

‘We spoke about everything [this week],’ Klopp told a press conference on Friday ahead of Saturday’s match against Bournemouth at Anfield, as his side look to pick up their first victory of the season following two draws and a defeat.

‘Milly is an emotional player and I had plenty of conversations with my best friends like this on the pitch. It looks more serious than it is. No problem at all.’

The Liverpool boss also doubled down on his comments that Liverpool deserved to beat United and pointed towards his team’s possession stats.

‘I know how it sounds but we should have won this game if we did little things better, so now we have to find out,’ Klopp added.

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‘The team we lined up with was more than good enough to play a top game. I want to fight through this, players come back and we’ll get better results.

‘We had 70% possession [vs United]. We respect the result and they had good chances, but we had good moments and they blocked them with all they had.

‘But the United game is gone,