“We are not children” – Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp suggests he was misunderstood after VAR drama
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp recently said that his previous comments about wanting a replay of his side's Premier League clash against Tottenham Hotspur were misconstrued.
Spurs beat Klopp's nine-man Reds 2-1 in the league on September 30 at the Tottenham Stadium in a game marred by poor officiating calls and a huge VAR controversy.
With the Reds a man down after Curtis Jones was controversially sent off, Luis Diaz thought he had fired the visitors in front in the 34th minute. However, VAR failed to overturn the wrong call for offside and the game had already restarted when they realised their mistake.
Klopp's side also saw another red - Diogo Jota - which the Premier League's Independent Key Match Incidents Panel has adjudged was a wrong call (as per GOAL). The Reds conceded an own goal (Joel Matip) at the death to lose 2-1.
The German said in the build-up to the 2-0 UEFA Europa League win at home to Union Saint-Gilloise in midweek that he would like the Spurs game to be replayed:
"As a football person, I think the outcome should be a replay."
However, in comments following the USG game, Klopp clarified that he has moved on from the Spurs match (as per GOAL):
"I think everybody here heard what I said, but everybody understood something else. That’s okay. But if I made the impression yesterday that I was still in the game against Tottenham, I was not at all."
He added:
"That is long ago, and we are over that. That’s fine and Diogo is over it as well. And Joel [Matip, who scored an own goal against Tottenham] could have played tonight because he is over it as well."
"That’s all fine. We are not children or whatever, we just had a few questions to answer and did that and that’s it," he added.
Meanwhile, with the win over USG, the Reds surged to the top of their Europa League group after two games, two ahead of second-placed Toulouse (4).
"We got the result we wanted" - Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp after beating USG
Liverpool responded to their first defeat of the season at Spurs with an emphatic performance against USG in the Europa League on Thursday (October 5). Ryan Gravenberch and Diogo Jota were the scorers for Klopp's side.
The win was the Reds' eighth in 10 games across competitions this season as they took a step closer to booking their spot in the Europa League knockouts. Klopp was understandably pleased with his side's performance.
"[We] got the result we wanted and know we can do better," he said (as per the official Liverpool website). "But on top of that a lot of good individual things I saw... but yes, it could've been better as well."
Liverpool next takes on Brighton & Hove Albion away in the Premier League on Sunday (October 8). A win could take Klopp's fourth-placed side to the top of the standings depending on results elsewhere.