Thursday 17 November 2016 17:22, UK
Jurgen Klopp says Wayne Rooney's weekend behaviour was tame compared to that of past players who "drank like devils".
The England captain publicly apologised after pictures emerged of him socialising into the early hours of Sunday morning at a wedding party at the team hotel.
The Football Association is reviewing its policy on time off for players in the wake of the incident, but Sky sources say Rooney's Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho blames the FA rather than his striker.
And Klopp has warned against demonising current players while continuing to revere past generations whose off-field antics were far less professional.
"I feel for the players," the Liverpool boss said. "We are all on the sunny side of life, earn a lot of money, do the job we love, but in the end there is a human being behind the kid.
"Sometimes we are invited to something - a wedding, a birthday - we can still play the professional role and say 'no, we don't drink' and 'if you smoke, please, 20 yards between me and you'. That's not how life works.
"This generation is the most professional generation of footballers we've ever had. All the legends you still love, all the guys you still admire drank like devils and smoked like crazy and were still good players. Nobody does it anymore.
"It's all about timing. When you are in the wrong moment at the wrong place it's not good, but I'm pretty sure it was not really serious.
"The not-so-nice part of our life is that all we do sounds like a big catastrophe when it's not perfect. And it isn't."
