Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard backtracked on his comments about Everton playing a long ball style, after Toffees defender Phil Jagielka hit back at his England international teammate's remarks.
Gerrard, fuming after the draw with Everton, where they had a perfectly legitimate Luis Suarez goal ruled out for offside in the dying moments, said Everton were way too direct, comparing them with the style adopted by long ball experts Stoke City.
Those comments were not met too kindly by Jagielka, with the Everton man defending his side's style of play, and alluding to the fact that Everton's method was more effective, considering Liverpool's new style of passing the ball as much a possible was not yielding too many good results.
"If Stevie says we play long ball then I'm not going to deny it," the 30-year-old said. "Do we play them for the full 90 minutes? No. But we play quite direct.
"We don't believe in passing it around for half an hour for the sake of it. We won't change the way we play.
"We won't start to look to put in a thousand passes a game."
In reply to the retort, Gerrard admitted he might have taken things a bit "too far" in the heat of the moment. "Just to clarify I've watched the game again, and I've seen some of Everton's matches this season, and what I said in relation to their style of play went too far," the midfielder told The Liverpool Echo.
"I was frustrated by the disallowed goal from Luis when I spoke and also some of the things (diving allegations) that have been said about Luis in recent weeks which haven't been fair in my opinion.
"As captain I have a duty to stand up for our players when I feel they are unfairly singled out. But it wasn't my intention to disrespect Everton or Stoke for that matter and I certainly didn't intend any disrespect to their manager or players.
"I have the utmost respect for David Moyes and Tony Pulis and the job they have done at their respective clubs.
"My main issue was with the goal that wasn't given and that Liverpool did not get the three points I felt we deserved in what was a fantastic derby match."
Liverpool ended their defense of their League Cup title with a 3-1 loss at Anfield to Brendan Rodgers' former club Swansea on Wednesday night.