JUST IN: Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou response to Klopp critics on referee and VAR in Tottenham vs Liverpool after red card and offside

After Liverpool were reduced to nine men in a 2-1 defeat to Tottenham on Saturday, Jurgen Klopp launched an attack on the referees. Spurs, who had taken the lead through Son Heung-min’s first-half goal, needed to win in the 96th minute after their opponents were reduced to nine men.

The goal, scored by Joel Matip following a cross from Pedro Porro, was the least contentious of a series of instances in the game that Klopp described as “the most unfair circumstances and crazy decisions” after the game.

Spurs were reduced to 10 men in the 25th minute as Curtis Jones was sent off for a challenge on Yves Bissouma.

VAR assistant Darren England asked referee Simon Hooper to reconsider his judgement after he had handed an initial yellow card.

“Curtis steps his foot on the ball and rolls the legs,” Klopp explained afterward. “Whatever you want to do with it.” It wasn’t an awful hit. He trod on the ball. He takes a full speed step on the ball and then goes over it,” he continued. “It looks different in slow motion.”

Jones landed on Bissouma’s ankle after scraping over the ball in a 50-50 challenge. However, things got worse for the visitors shortly later as Luis Diaz’s goal was called out for offside.

“It isn’t offside. Never. “They drew their lines incorrectly,” Klopp shouted when asked about the verdict. “Someone opened their smartphone [at half time], we saw it on Instagram or Twitter or whatever.”

“Well that offside, I’m still quite surprised by it,” Gary Neville commented on the initial call. “It didn’t appear to be offside at the time, and I’ve always trusted the technology’s accuracy, but to be honest, I’m perplexed by that one.”

“We were looking at the VAR monitors, and we didn’t see the lines go on there like we normally do, and it was just the speed with which they made their decision.” They hadn’t even had time to look at it because of how rapidly it was manufactured. We’ll probably get an explanation later.”

“When it takes this long for an answer from @FA_PGMOL over a contentious decision, you know there’s been a f**k up!” tweeted Jamie Carragher.

Things became even worse for Klopp and Liverpool when Jota was shown two yellow cards in three minutes. His first, which was ruled for a trip on Destiny Udogie, appeared severe following

The left-back appeared to trip over himself. After bringing down Bissouma, there was no whining about the second.
Klopp lashed out at the decision to give him the first yellow card, adding, “First yellow on Diogo is never a yellow card.” He strikes his leg. He received a yellow card. It’s insane.”

“I never saw a more unfair game,” the German coach remarked. It’s amusing to you. It’s just too pricey for me. ‘Football is a result game,’ I told the boys, but if you can’t achieve a performance, what can you get? Aside from decisions, the only thing we didn’t get today were the outcomes.

 

“I’ve never been more proud of a team.” I’ve never seen a game like this before.