“Blatant decisions” – Jurgen Klopp blames match officials for last season’s title loss

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp blames decisions by officials for Manchester City’s 2021-22 PL glory

Speaking to Sport 1 (h/t Metro) Jurgen Klopp reminisced about Liverpool’s quadruple run of last season where the team ended up winning the FA Cup and Carabao Cup but failed to secure the UEFA Champions League and Premier League title. 

Referring to Liverpool’s title run of last season which ran till the last day of the second and almost was in their grasp before Manchester City’s memorable comeback against Aston Villa, after being two goals down in the first half. 

Without taking any praise away from champions Manchester City, Klopp believes certain decisions by referees were a major factor in Liverpool coming behind City. 

“There were really blatant refereeing decisions. You keep thinking, what went in our favour?

Clear handball penalties, penalties not given. Clear red cards not given against us, so for the opponent.”

The advent of VAR (Virtual Assistant Referee) has met with a lot of criticism mainly due to the irregularities that it suffers from and subsequently impacting the results of many fixtures. 

Klopp is right with his take on the irregular implementation of VAR in its initial years and how we have borne the brunt of it. 

However, it would be wise to say that in general, the Premier League referees have come under a lot of criticism and scrutiny for certain decisions taken. 

The only regularity amongst it has been that the irregular decisions have been faced by all teams at some point or the other. But somehow, it would appear that we bear more of a brunt of it than most others.

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Klopp has every right to complain about decisions that were blatantly in favour of the opposition even when it seemed quite otherwise. Given how the team played last season, it is fair to say that the officials were primarily responsible for Man City pipping us to the title.