Jurgen Klopp hit out at Martin Atkinson after accusing the referee of repeating a mistake which saw Manchester United score against Liverpool back in 2019.
The Reds boss saw his side take the Premier League title race to the final day after earning a 2-1 win at Southampton on Tuesday night. Having seen Manchester City drop points at West Ham just a couple of days earlier, it means Liverpool sit just a point behind Pep Guardiola’s side heading into the final round of fixtures.
Klopp’s men were made to work hard for their victory over. Having made nine changes to his side following their FA Cup final win over Chelsea at the weekend, Liverpool fell behind to Nathan Redmond’s early goal before Takumi Minamino and Joel Matip kept their quadruple hopes alive.
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Klopp though took issue with the goal that saw his side fall behind at St Mary’s. The Liverpool boss was adamant the visitors should have been awarded a free-kick in the build-up to Redmond’s strike for Lyanco’s challenge on Diogo Jota.
Despite seeing his side come from behind to record another victory, Klopp took aim at Atkinson for his decision to allow play to continue leading up to Redmond’s goal. And the Liverpool boss drew parallels with a similar incident during his side’s 1-1 draw with United at Old Trafford in October 2019.
"For me, it was a foul,” Klopp told Sky Sports. “But we have been in a similar situation when Martin Atkinson has not given a foul on one of our players and (Marcus) Rashford scored a goal, it was exactly the same. Afterwards, he said yes we could have spotted that, but who cares?"
The incident in question saw Rashford put United ahead nearly three years ago, but Klopp was left incensed by what he perceived to be a foul by Victor Lindelof on Divock Origi in the build-up. Adam Lallana would eventually go on to grab an equaliser at Old Trafford, but his manager was left questioning the role of VAR afterwards.
Klopp said at the time: “The ref let the game run because he has VAR, but the VAR then says it was not clear, so they don’t overrule it. That doesn’t make too much sense. It’s a clear VAR issue.
“I am not angry or whatever, it’s just wow. I saw it was a foul and nothing else. Mr Atkinson I’m sure would have whistled if there was no VAR involved, but now we have somebody else who can make the decision. But somebody else is not making the decision.”
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