Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp lambasts referee Anthony Taylor for his poor decision-making during the defeat against Arsenal
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp criticized referee Anthony Taylor for poor and biased officiating during the defeat against Arsenal. Klopp accepted that Arsenal played better and deserved to win but made a strong point against the officiating, nonetheless.
The Reds have easily dropped around nine points in the matches that contained highly controversial decisions which went against them. Even though Arsenal outplayed Liverpool on Sunday, a lot of evidence supports the Reds’ grievance against refereeing this season.
Liverpool’s loss against Tottenham Hotspur earlier this season consisted of numerous decisions that manipulated the result in Spurs’ favour. The match involved an overturn of a legitimate opening goal from Luis Diaz and two very controversial red cards.
Furthermore, the Reds dropped points in three separate games that contained blatant handballs within the penalty area from the opponents. Liverpool have also suffered from inconsistent disciplinary actions that many rival clubs have conveniently avoided in numerous cases. They have received the highest number of red cards (five) in the Premier League so far while four of those cards are very controversial.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the defeat, Klopp chastised the refereeing decisions despite accepting the poor result. He said:
“A lot of things were against us today. This referee gave me a red card against Man City for a wrestling situation between Bernardo Silva and Mo Salah. Today same situation with Jota but didn’t get a red card. It is unbelievable, then the of holding Havertz on Konate for the first yellow card. Then Havertz goes down and the referee gives Konate a yellow card. Gabriel does the same to Nunez and no yellow card.”
Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate received the marching order in the 88th minute of the game after Kai Havertz ran into him. Just a few minutes later Arsenal defender Gabriel wrestled Darwin Nunez down and avoided the booking from Taylor. Nunez received a yellow card for protesting the inconsistency to the referee while Gabriel’s tackle had intent, unlike Konate’s tackle.
"PGMOL acknowledge a significant human error occurred during the first half of Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool."
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 30, 2023
The PGMOL statement on the Luis Diaz disallowed goal. pic.twitter.com/qC2C0jMsXD
The immediate sequence of events is the epitome of the way referees have operated this season, particularly in Liverpool games. In the 2021-22 season, the Reds lost the Premier League title by a mere point as the season contained a game-changing decision in favour of the title winner, Manchester City.
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Liverpool should have been lying comfortably at around 60 points right now but unfortunately, they are not. Nevertheless, the Reds need to focus on the games at hand and hope that those dropped points will not carry any weight in the end.
