Frank Lampard admits he regrets his touchline spat with Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp at the end of last season.
Lampard told Klopp and his assistant Pepijn Lijnders to “f*** off” and launched a tirade in the direction of the Reds bench during the 5-3 defeat.
But the Englishman has moved to quash any talk of a lingering beef between the two ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.
Asked how he feels when looking back on his confrontation with Klopp, Lampard told The High Performance Podcast: “Yeah, I did regret that.
“And when that broke the next day – I clearly felt it as I was doing it – but when it broke the next day and a friend of mine sent it to me in the morning, I was a bit embarrassed by it.
“Because I was in the moment, but in the moment, I felt we turned up and it was the easiest day for Liverpool ever.
“They won the league, they went goals up early in the game. And a few things happened with the bench, I’m not going to go into detail, but my feeling was, ‘I want to protect my club’.
“And I didn’t have a problem with Liverpool celebrating. Luckily enough, I’ve been there. I’ve been with Chelsea where we won the league quite early one year, and you can sit there and everything feels great.”
Lampard also spoke of his respect for Klopp and how he tries to “practice what he preaches”.
The Blues boss added: “My feeling was, I want to be there where they are. I definitely didn’t mean any disrespect to Jurgen Klopp, because I’ve got huge admiration for them.
“But what I felt had gone on, it was an impulse reaction, which I will happily – when I do see him, I’ll put that one right.
“But also I care about my job, and it came out in the wrong way. And even I explained that to my daughters when I got home. And I’ll be brutally honest, it’s not the first time that they’ve heard it from me in the wrong moment.
“So I do try and practice what I preach, but I suppose in adult life, it doesn’t always work that way
“But yeah, I was – and not just my own daughters, because you’ve got millions of Chelsea fans around the world, whether you’re young or old, it’s not the way I like to carry myself.
“But in talking about high level sport, you can’t take passion out of the game. And it just came out of me in one little swoop there.”
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