On Boxing Night, Liverpool defeated Burnley 2-0, and Jurgen Klopp made hints about his displeasure with two VAR rulings that resulted in goals being chalked off for Liverpool.
Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota’s goals at the conclusion of the game were enough for the Reds to overtake Arsenal at Turf Moor and take the lead atop the Premier League standings.
Nevertheless, Cody Gakpo and Harvey Elliott disallowed goals for Nunez and Charlie Taylor’s alleged foul and Mohamed Salah’s offside position, respectively, cost Klopp’s team a goal in each half.
After consulting the pitch-side monitor, referee Paul Tierney determined that Salah was obstructing goalkeeper James Trafford’s line of sight. Klopp acknowledges that the calls were difficult to hear, even on a night when his team won the league.
“The goal for Darwin was as important [as the second],” said Klopp. “Cody scored again, Harvey scored an incredible goal and they just take it away, it’s really, really tough. But we won the game and it’s all fine.
“I was really happy with the first half. I don’t know how many finishes we had today, in the last three games we had something like 80 shots, plus today it might be over 100 in four games, which is absolutely insane.
“We should have been calmer and finished the game off much earlier, that’s clear. But again, that’s not for me to be frustrated. I know how intense the period is. It’s all about getting through it and getting results. Today we got three points and well deserved.
“We could have got it easier, but as long as I’ve been at Liverpool we never did it the easy way. So why should we stop with that now?”
Speaking to Amazon, he added: : “Why do referees create their own view on something? We all watch football and need the referee but we need them to make the right interpretations of the rules. It’s like, wow. Handball is sometimes handball and all these kinds of things”
On Jota, who returned after a month out with the decisive second goal. Klopp added: “I love Diogo Jota but he missed chances in the past as well!
“That’s the nature of the thing – we always ask for the players who aren’t involved and all of a sudden we think they can then change the world. Diogo is an incredibly important player for us and having him changes the whole dynamic, that’s true.
“But he missed chances before that. The goal he scored today was of a boy full of conviction because he had no chance to create any kind of doubt in the last few weeks as he was in rehab.”