Gary Neville has urged Jurgen Klopp to move on after the Liverpool manager called for his side’s defeat at Tottenham to be replayed.
The Reds saw Luis Diaz’s opening goal wrongly disallowed for offside, with the referees’ body PGMOL now releasing the audio of the major VAR error following a request from Liverpool.
But Klopp says the audio conversation, with VAR lead Darren England and assistant Dan Cook failing to realise the on-field decision was onside, has not changed his thinking and believes the match should be played again.
Liverpool also had two players sent off in the defeat, midfielder Curtis Jones and forward Diogo Jota, before conceding a 96th-minute winner in the 2-1 defeat. The result was Liverpool’s first defeat of the season.
Liverpool responded strongly to the VAR controversy, vowing to “explore their options” in a statement that led to the PGMOL releasing the audio of the error to the public on Tuesday.
However former Manchester United captain and Sky Sports pundit Neville believe Klopp has gone too far by calling for the game to be replayed, in what would be an unprecedented move for the Premier League.
Reacting to Klopp’s comments on Twitter/X, Neville said: “Can’t believe how Liverpool have grabbed defeat from victory in their handling of this! They were wronged by a shocking mistake. End of!
Neville, who was highly critical of the VAR process following Saturday’s match, added in a further post that Liverpool had escalated the situation by “mentioning integrity and exploring options”. “Now we’ve seen they want a replay!” Neville said. “That’s madness.”
Klopp’s comments were also widely ridiculed by Tottenham fans, who joked that if Saturday’s Premier League match is replayed then the 2019 Champions League final should be too. In that game, Liverpool were awarded an early penalty for a controversial handball and went on to win the Madrid final 2-0.
The former Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen, who played in the final, added: “Count me in!”
