Liverpool’s defeat by Tottenham ‘should be replayed’, says Jurgen Klopp
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes his team deserve to replay last weekend’s controversial Premier League defeat at Tottenham Hotspur, calling it “the right thing to do”.
The Reds had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside after video assistant referee Darren England mistook the on-field decision and failed to tell official Simon Hooper that Luis Diaz was onside.
Liverpool lost the match 2-1 in stoppage time. Referees’ body the PGMOL blamed “significant human error” and, at the request of the club, released the audio of the VAR dialogue.
“The audio didn’t change it all. I saw a goal we scored and it didn’t count so I wasn’t waiting to find out how it happened,” said Klopp.
“I think there should have been solutions for it afterwards. Not as manager of Liverpool but as a football person, I think the outcome should be a replay. That’s how it is.”
A replay is not believed to be under consideration by the Premier League and Klopp conceded that his suggested solution “probably will not happen”.
“The argument will probably be: if we open that gate then everybody will ask for it,” he added.
“I think the situation is so unprecedented that it didn’t happen before. I am 56 years old and I’m used to wrong decisions, but something like that as far as I can remember has never happened.
“If it would happen again, I think a replay would be the right thing to do. Or the referee has the opportunity to bring both coaches together and say ‘sorry, we made a mistake but we can sort it — let Liverpool score a goal and we start from there’.”
Klopp also argued that the disallowing of Diaz’s strike might have cost Liverpool two goals, since Tottenham opened the scoring moments later through Son Heung-Min.
“In this specific game what makes it a bit more special is that we conceded two minutes after we scored a regular goal,” he said.
“And how all things depend on each other, if the goal had counted the game would have started in the centre of the pitch and it would have been different.
“That’s my view on it. I’m not angry at all. They made a mistake and they felt horrible, I’m sure. Nobody needs further punishment. We should just discuss it without emotions.”
The German also reiterated his belief that Hooper should not have sent off Curtis Jones, one of two Liverpool players to be shown a red card in north London.
“What made this day really difficult for us was all the other decisions. Curtis Jones got a red card and I stick to the opinion that it wasn’t a red card,” Klopp said.
“The ref got called to the screen and saw a frozen picture, and I would give a red card for that picture. Then he sees the replay in slow motion, and I would have given a red card. But in real time it is not a red card.”