West Ham skipper Mark Noble clearly doesn’t agree with Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp’s recent comments

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Mark Noble suggested that that he was really disappointed with the criticism aimed at Atletico Madrid, after their Champions League triumph against Liverpool in midweek, when writing his weekly column for the Evening Standard.

The Reds battered Atleti for most of the game. But Jurgen Klopp’s side were undone after a mistake from goalkeeper Adrian, and Diego Simeone’s men ended up winning 3-2 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate.

The Argentine is well-renowned for setting his teams up defensively with the priority being not to get beat. He sets Atleti up with a goalkeeper, two banks of four and two forwards. Each and every one of them works their socks off for Simeone.

Klopp came out after the game, and suggested that he doesn’t understand why Atletico Madrid play the way they do, considering how much quality they have amongst their ranks (Sky Sports):

“I don’t understand with the quality they have the football they play. They could play proper football but they stand deep and have counter-attacks.”

Simeone got his tactics spot on

Really, what did Klopp want the Spanish side to do? Open up and go for the jugular? If they had done that, Liverpool would probably have won the game by four goals or so.

And West Ham skipper Noble fully supported Simeone and Atleti for the way in which they set up at Anfield on Wednesday night, when writing his weekly column for the Evening Standard:

“What really disappointed me, though, was the criticism of Atletico, the way they put plenty of players behind the ball and defended for their lives. Yes, that’s just what Atletico did do but so what? We’ve seen what happens — and I’ve been on the wrong end of things — when teams go there, open up and play expansive football. They get walloped, just like Barcelona, who lost 4-0 at Anfield last year. I don’t understand that criticism. The game at the highest level is about winning and nobody remembers the teams who played well in the last 16 but lost.”

Noble is spot on. Klopp was clearly extremely frustrated having just been dumped out of the Champions League.

And in the cold light of day, the Liverpool boss will surely agree that Atleti set up in the correct manner to give themselves the best chance of progressing through to the next round.