LIVERPOOL manager Jurgen Klopp was left fuming last night by a refereeing decision during his side’s 2-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur.
A Luis Diaz goal for Klopp’s side was incorrectly ruled out for offside as Liverpool, who had two players sent off, went on to suffer their first Premier League defeat of the season.
Replays showed that there was clearly no offside in the build-up to the goal but the assistant referee raised his flag and somehow the video assistant referee (VAR) did not intervene.
“I don’t think there is anything to say about the offside goal, I knew it at half-time. In the first moment I saw [it], it’s clearly not offside but then it’s offside, so I try to think they have a better view and at half-time we knew,” Klopp said during his post-match press conference.
“With normal pictures, [it’s] easy to see now. But [I’m] pretty sure whoever did that, made that decision, didn’t do it on purpose. It didn’t take extremely long to come to the conclusion. It’s a bit strange but somebody else has to clarify that. I have nothing else to say about it.”
When asked whether there was any explanation from the referee afterwards, Klopp said: “How can the ref explain the situation? The linesman thought obviously it’s worth watching [and] looking again and that’s why he raised the flag.
“In the good old times, a linesman should have seen that as well, that this is not offside, because we had these situations quite frequently and when you see it back it’s pretty clear… but, again, nobody did it on purpose, whatever I say here just creates headlines but doesn’t help the situation at all. I’m not in the mood.”
Referees body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) later admitted in a statement that there was ‘significant human error’ in disallowing Diaz’s goal for offside and apologised to Liverpool.
“PGMOL acknowledge significant human error during Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool. The goal by Luiz Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match officials,” the statement read.
“This was a clear and obvious factual error and should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention, however, the VAR failed to intervene.
“PGMOL will conduct a full review into the circumstances which led to the error.”
Still, Klopp was not impressed.
He said: “Who does that help now? We had that situation in the Manchester United game, did Wolves get points for it?
“We will not get points for it so it doesn’t help. Nobody expects 100 per cent right decisions on-field but I think we all thought when VAR came in it might make things easier. I don’t know why, the people in the VAR are they that much under pressure?
“Today the decision was made really quick, I would say, for that goal? It changed the momentum of the game, that’s how it is. We score that goal; it was top, top, top, outstandingly well played.
“In a game where you don’t get a lot to feel better, you make that, that’s super-important information, that’s how we can hurt them, that’s how we can beat them, stuff like this. So, it was super-difficult, but the boys dealt extremely well with it.”
Following the defeat, Liverpool fell to fourth place, two points behind leaders Manchester City, who dropped their first points of the season in a 2-1 loss at Wolves yesterday.
Tottenham are second, level on points with third-placed Arsenal who thrashed Bournemouth 4-0 yesterday.
