Former Chelsea striker Chris Sutton has defended Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius over his clash with the Neville brothers.

Sutton says the German should be praised for defending himself from criticism by Manchester United legend Gary Neville.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: "Where Phil was wrong is he's basically saying players shouldn't do interviews. That was the way I read his comments — when you're young, breaking into a team, train hard, work hard, say nothing until you've got a couple of seasons under your belt then you can start shouting your mouth off.

"Well, what are Phil's criteria when players should be allowed to speak? Does that mean no one from the lower leagues is allowed or do you have to have 50 caps, 100 caps, do you have to win the Premier League? I don't get it.

"Karius... what did Karius do? He was asked a question. It was a 50-minute interview. I think he was asked a couple of questions and it took what 30 [or] 50 seconds and he gave an opinion and Gary Neville copped the hump.

"That is the long and the short of it and then Phil Neville backing his brother up saying "nobody should be allowed to do interviews until you're a certain age". And, here's hypocrisy for you... they work in the media. The Nevilles are totally out of order with this one."

He added: "Karius should be commended for doing the interview. Then Gary Neville reacted and, let's get it right, that was a bit precious of Gary.

"Then Phil reacted (on Sunday night) didn't he, I mean they're like the Mitchell brothers, aren't they, the pair of them!"