Spurs could have gone down to 10 men as Kane’s studs caught the ankle of Robertson, but the referee showed a yellow card and the VAR didn’t intervene.
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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is “fine” with the 2-2 draw against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon in the Premier League. However, Klopp feels that the game would have been “completely different” due to two key decisions in the first half. The drama-filled match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ended with the points being shared. Spurs star striker Harry Kane opened the scoring to put the hosts ahead before Diogo Jota headed in a fine equaliser during the first half. Andy Robertson put the Reds 2-1 in front in the 69th minute, but Son Heung-Min quickly levelled and Liverpool’s left-back was then sent off with 13 minutes remaining.
It is interesting to note that Tottenham Hotspur could have gone down to 10 men as Kane’s studs caught the ankle of Robertson in the first half, but the referee showed a yellow card and the VAR didn’t intervene. Undoubtedly, Liverpool FC boss Jurgen Klopp was furious with the decision. In his post-match press conference, Klopp, as per their club’s website, said, “So let’s start with the result maybe. The result is fine, would’ve been different, I think, with different decisions from the ref. But with the decisions, how he did it, I’m fine with the result.”
A point apiece in #TOTLIV. pic.twitter.com/zRjjTX8yP8
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 19, 2021
Klopp added: “It’s a 2-2 at Tottenham – that’s absolutely OK. It was a difficult game for us for plenty of reasons. One is that we had to change a lot and it’s obviously then difficult to deal with the different challenges in a game like this. The challenge was today we play against Tottenham, who set up a 5-3-2 and when they won the ball deep in their own half, they just kicked it as far as possible and Kane and Son were on their bikes for it, so we struggled with these moments slightly.
“It costs you obviously, it gives you some struggles a little bit, so we had to reorganise our protection a little bit better in the second half. That we don’t run always in a counter-attack, that it now makes no sense that Ibou Konate is involved in our offensive passing and Tyler Morton is the one who stands against Harry Kane – that’s not really how it should be. So that’s the football part. It was an intense game, Tottenham looked second half slightly fresher than us. Yeah, we were 2-1 up, they couldn’t score the second as well.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp then detailed in on the Harry Kane and Diogo Jota situations. He is of the opinion that Kane should have gotten a red card. “But, of course, the game would have been completely different with two key decisions in the first half. So let’s start with Robbo. We saw it now back and, yes, you can give a red card there. It’s not the harshest ever but it’s not the smartest as well. He knows that and he’s a really good boy but he lost it a little bit, so this red card you can give. But this is the proof that the VAR was there today because before that we thought he might not be in his office, because the two other situations I think we all agree now that Harry Kane should have seen a red card and he didn’t,” he explained.
“And the penalty situation, Mr Tierney told me that he thought Diogo Jota stopped on purpose, he wanted to get hit. If you watch this situation back, that’s a very exclusive view and it’s really difficult to do these things that quick. It was a very quick decision of him – you could see that he saw it and was directly like this. I’m not sure if he was prepared for it or whatever but if you watch the situation, how can you react that quick? It’s a clear penalty but he thought it’s clearly not a penalty. Wow. That’s obviously two wrong decisions of him, I would say, and one right – all three against us.”
When stressed on Kane’s tackle on Robertson in the first half, Klopp replied, “Really you have to not ask me, you have to ask the VAR. That’s a clear, absolutely 100 per cent red card. Very often you cannot see clearly or whatever but in this situation, if Andy Robertson’s foot is on the ground, his leg is broken – I think we all agree on that. But luckily for both, he was in the air. It’s still a red card but the ref saw it differently.”
