Gary Neville believes Jurgen Klopp has inadvertently transformed Liverpool from the wronged party to the villains by saying that, if it was up to him, his side would get a replay against Tottenham.
Klopp has poured more petrol on the flames of debate surrounding the VAR mishap by saying he'd like the game be replayed. Liverpool lost 2-1 to Tottenham in the Premier League on Saturday after Luis Diaz’s opening goal was incorrectly ruled out for offside.
The PGMOL has apologised for the error by its VAR officials and has released the audio from the decision which shows how Darren England made the mistake. Speaking on Wednesday in a press conference ahead of a Europa League game against Union Saint-Gilloise, Klopp called the mistake “unprecedented” and said it therefore warranted a replay.
Neville thinks that Klopp has made a major mistake by bringing up the subject of a replay because Liverpool are now at risk of becoming the target of the discussion, rather than the VAR officials. Alongside some laughing emojis, Neville wrote on Twitter : “Can’t believe how Liverpool have grabbed defeat from victory in their handling of this! They were wronged by a shocking mistake. End of!”
Asked why he thought there had been a change of tone from Liverpool, who had never previously mentioned a replay in their statements, he replied: “Because of Liverpool’s statement escalating it, mentioning integrity and exploring options. Now we’ve seen they want a replay! That’s madness.”
Liverpool had previously released statements criticising the officiating of the match and asking for the audio to be released. But Klopp’s words on Wednesday were indeed an escalation of the debate, which has been raging all week.
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He said: "The audio didn't change it at all because I was not really interested in why things happen. I saw the outcome, I saw a goal, and I saw it didn't count. It's really important that we deal with it in a proper way.
“The only outcome should be a replay…probably won’t happen. The argument against that will be if we open that gate everyone will ask for it. I think the situation is unprecedented. I’m 56 years old and I’m absolutely used to wrong decisions. But something like that as far as I can remember has never happened. That’s why it should be a replay.
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He added: “I think a replay would be the right thing, or, the ref has the opportunity to bring both coaches together and say ‘we made a mistake, let Liverpool score a goal and we start from there’. What makes this specific game so special is that we concede two minutes after and how all things depend on each other, if we had scored we would have started the game in the centre. It would have been different.”
Klopp was also annoyed at the red cards to Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota, who will both miss the trip to Brighton this weekend. Jones will serve a three-match ban in the Premier League after his appeal was rejected, while Jota will miss one game for his two yellow cards in quick succession.
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