Former Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor has hit back at Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp after the latter criticised the former England star for his damning assessment of Manchester United's 4-0 defeat to Brentford last weekend.
Aghonlahor hit out at Erik ten Hag's side following last Saturday's horror show in the capital, as the Reds produced one of their worst performances in living memory. They were 4-0 down by half-time and failed to muster up any sort of response after the interval.
It marked a second defeat in as many games for Ten Hag, meaning it is far from the ideal level of form that United want to take into Monday night's mouthwatering showdown with Liverpool at Old Trafford. And ahead of the showpiece contest, Klopp, during his pre-match press conference on Friday, hit out at Agbonlahor for his comments about United.
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The German took particular offence to Agbonlahor's comment about United lacking a strong mentality. That prompted Klopp to reminisce about the former Villa man's lack of mentality from when he was part of the side that lost 6-0 to Liverpool back in February 2016.
Klopp said : "It was not a nice week for United after Brentford. We forget how good Brentford are.
"I watched the first-half and then listened to the radio, talkSPORT. Gabby Agbonlahor, he lost against us 6-0 in my first year.
"I couldn't remember him as a mentality monster on the pitch. But what he said about United on that show, I was close to calling in and telling him, 'You have forgotten completely that you have been a player'.
"It was unbelievable. If ex-players are going already like this, you can imagine how everything else is going."
Klopp's comments prompted a response from Agbonlahor. He has requested that the Liverpool boss should not advise him on how to be a pundit and that he would be open to chatting over a drink.
"Mate, I woke up and I've never seen my phone blow up as much as it was," Agbonlahor told Jamie O'Hara on talkSPORT. "I was like 'what’s happened? Jurgen Klopp has done this'.
"When I've seen it and I've seen the clip, I'm thinking 'come on, Jurgen'. It's a bit too much, isn't it?
"It's great for the show that he's listening to our show, all managers should be. For me, I've got bosses at talkSPORT who I answer to. If my reaction to Manchester United being 4-0 down was too much then I'm sure I'd have heard about that.
"I don't need Jurgen Klopp telling me how to be a pundit, he should concentrate on being a manager. He wouldn't take advice on being a coach from me, would he? So I'm not going to take advice from him.
"It's all settled now though. Simon Jordan sorted him out for me – my good friend Simon, I owe him a drink. It's very strange but Jurgen, if you're listening, I'm available for a chat any time. We'll catch up in Liverpool and have a drink, no problem."
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