Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was left fuming at the controversial VAR decisions during his side’s 2-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday in the Premier League. Liverpool had a goal wrongly ruled out during the match.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has slammed the controversial VAR calls made during their loss to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, September 30.
On a chaotic day in the Premier League, Liverpool suffered a 2-1 defeat against Tottenham. The match was marked by controversial decisions made by VAR, which significantly impacted the game’s outcome. Darren England, who was on VAR duty for the fixture, found himself at the center of the controversy.
The contentious moment occurred in the 33rd minute when Liverpool, already down to ten men due to Curtis Jones’ red card, thought they had scored through Luis Diaz. However, the goal was disallowed for offside by the on-field officials. The decision was made unusually quickly, and the customary offside line graphic was not shown during the VAR check, leading to confusion and frustration.
Following the match, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) admitted that a significant human error had occurred. They acknowledged that the disallowed goal was a clear and obvious factual error and should have been awarded through VAR intervention. However, the VAR failed to intervene, causing the goal to be disallowed.
This incident sparked anger from Liverpool’s players and coach Jurgen Klopp, who criticized the unfair circumstances and “crazy decisions” that marred the match.
“The (Diaz) offside goal. That’s not offside when you see it. They drew their lines wrong,” said Klopp as quoted by Reuters. “The ball’s between Mo’s (Salah’s) legs. They … didn’t judge the moment when Mo passed the ball right. It’s so tough to deal with it.
“We scored an own goal, that’s really tough to take… The first red card, Curtis steps on the ball and goes over. Not a bad tackle. It looks different in slow motion. He steps full throttle on the ball and goes over the ball. That’s unlucky.
Diogo Jota was given his marching orders after two bookable offences. However, Klopp feels that Jota shouldn’t have been given the first yellow as Destiny Udogie had tripped himself to the ground.
“(Jota’s) first yellow was not a yellow. Then he gets a second and to defend with eight outfield players is tricky,” said Klopp.
