The Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was not particularly amused about how Manchester United scored their first goal in the game against Liverpool last night. Klopp thought there was a clear foul ahead of that goal.
Klopp was convinced that the referee saw it as well, but since the referee has VAR now, he thought he shouldn’t stop the play and if there was a foul, he could check it with VAR later.
But, as it turned out, the play after the foul ended in a goal and since, the referee was aware that there might have been a foul, he immediately signaled for the VAR. While, the replays showed that the Liverpool winger Divock Origi was hit on his shin which took him down, the VAR concluded it was not a strong enough hit for it to be considered a foul.
Many people didn’t agree with the decision, but for Klopp, the real issue is the existence of the VAR. Klopp thinks that VAR is good in terms of checking the handballs and the off side, but since VAR is there, the referee sometimes let the play carry on despite a foul as he thinks he can get the foul checked through VAR. That, according to Klopp, is not right.
“Mr Atkinson (the referee) I’m sure would have whistled if there was no VAR involved, but now we have somebody else who can make the decision. But somebody else is not making the (right) decision.” Klopp said while addressing the reporters in the post match press conference.
Liverpool had a really hard time facing United at Old Trafford, which was unexpected, as they were considered the favorites to win the game. They were outplayed by United for most parts of the first half. However, they raised the intensity in the second half and eventually found the equalizer to take one point from the game.
