Jurgen Klopp “got the wrong end of the stick” when he criticised football website The Athletic, according to journalist David Ornstein.
Ornstein, who is a football correspondent for The Athletic, was highlighting issues around misreporting of stories in the football media.
The Liverpool manager publicly criticised the website for an article published in the wake of Liverpool’s 5-0 victory against Manchester United – a match in which United midfielder Paul Pogba received a straight red card.
Klopp said: “A real ‘fake news’ story last week was that I thought United should have had more red cards.”
Ornstein explained that the reporting in The Athletic was in fact correct.
Speaking at Journalism and Media week run by Leeds Trinity University, Ornstein said: “I can tell you it was correct because I know how it was sourced, corroborated and cleared with the club.”
Instead, the story was twisted and taken out of context by an aggregator and subsequently followed up by the Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail reported that Klopp was left frustrated as he thought at least five United players could have been sent off during the game.
Ornstein added: “The piece (in the Athletic) never said that. It said that on the bus home staff were talking about how Man Utd got away lightly.”
“It was understandable that Klopp was angry – but that was not The Athletic report.”
According to Ornstein, it is important that The Athletic and Liverpool sit down to talk over the issue as “Klopp got the wrong end of the stick”.
It is becoming a regular problem that stories written by The Athletic are being misreported by other publications – with Ornstein’s Monday column often reported out of context.
He said: “I reported that the Premier League are exploring staging more meaningful and competitive matches overseas.
“The Daily Mail wrote that up as ‘the 39th game is back on the agenda and they are looking at taking Premier League matches abroad’ – which I never said.
I had to print a clarification to help the Premier League out – even though I had never said it in the first place.”
Reliability is an issue facing football correspondents, and incorrect stories are often published.
Paul Pogba, for example, revealed that he intends to take legal action against The Sun after false reports suggested he had retired from international duty with France.
However, Ornstein stressed that his USP is the reliability and integrity of his reporting.
He said: “I will turn over every single stone I can to make sure I have complied with the editorial guidelines which is at least two independent sources.
“I cross reference all of my stories. I do everything in my power to make sure that is accurate. If I am content, and The Athletic are content … we will then go ahead and publish.”