Jurgen Klopp defends Gary Lineker over BBC row, says he cannot understand the decision to stand him down

Jurgen Klopp has shared his honest views on Gary Lineker being told to 'step back' from presenting Match of the Day due to his tweets about the government's new asylum policy.

Lineker compared the language used to launch the new asylum policy with that used in 1930s Germany.

The BBC said it considered his posts on social media a breach of its guidelines and that the MOTD host will remain off air.

MOTD pundits Alan Shearer and Ian Wright dropped out of Saturday's show in solidarity with the 62-year-old.

And speaking after Liverpool's loss at Bournemouth, Klopp said he could not understand the BBC's decision to stand down the former Leicester City striker.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, he said: "I’m not native but I cannot see why you would ask someone to step back for saying that. I’m not sure if it is a language issue or not but that is the world we are living in.

"Everybody wants to be so concerned about doing things in the right manner, saying the right stuff. If you don’t do that then you create a sh*tstorm, it is a really difficult world to live in.

"If I understand it right, it is a message, an opinion about human rights and that should be possible to say."

Klopp added: "It is not about me now showing the BBC, it is not that the guy with the BBC mic is a bad person.

"I heard about the ‘rules’ of BBC that you are not allowed to have these opinions, it is a difficult world to live in. I can’t say more."

The German boss' comments on Lineker came after his side suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth.

Philip Billing scored the only goal of the game, with Liverpool missing the chance to level when Mohamed Salah fluffed his lines from the spot.

The Reds fail to build on from their 7-0 thrashing of Manchester United last weekend as they remain fifth in the table.