Klopp awaits punishment for improper conduct at Manchester City game

Jürgen Klopp will discover the severity of his punishment for being sent off against Manchester City next week after responding to a Football Association charge of improper conduct.

The Liverpool manager did not disclose his response to the FA when asked at a press conference on Friday but is understood to have accepted the charge after being sent off for haranguing the assistant referee Gary Beswick at Anfield.

An independent disciplinary commission will meet to consider the offence and decide on the sanction. Klopp could be offered a one-match touchline ban plus a fine, which would come into effect for Liverpool’s home game against Leeds next Saturday if accepted, although there is potential for a more severe punishment. The referee Anthony Taylor’s match report and Klopp’s past behaviour will be taken into consideration.

Liverpool visit Nottingham Forest on Saturday on the back of a three-game winning run that has left them one point from qualification for the Champions League knockout phase and reduced the gap to fourth-placed Chelsea to four points in the Premier League. Klopp ruled Liverpool out of the title race before the defeat at Arsenal and, while not ruling his team back in, insists their ambition has never wavered.

Klopp, who could be without Darwin Núñez at Forest because of a hamstring issue, said: “We have no influence on that [the title race]. We don’t play City or Arsenal now, we play all the others if I am right. We have to win every game. Honestly, we’ve never had a different aim.

“Our aim is to win as many games as somehow possible. If that brings us closer to fight for whatever, then great. At the moment we realise that we are close enough then we will go for it, but what that is I have no idea. Is it the top six? Is it the top four? But each three points brings you closer to the area where we want to be and where we should be. That’s all. Please don’t think we have no targets or we are aimless. We are still completely full of ambition but we have to do it step by step and game by game and that starts at Nottingham.”