Steve McManaman and Jermain Defoe agreed that Curtis Jones was hard done by during Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
Whilst it’s understandable that Steve McManaman, a former Liverpool player, is going to be annoyed by yesterday’s VAR calls.
Former striker Jermain Defoe, who is currently working as a coach at Tottenham, even agreed that Curtis Jones shouldn’t have been sent off, as he told Premier League Productions (30/09/23 at 6:30 pm).
On-field referee Simon Hooper initially gave a yellow card, before being told by VAR to go to his monitor where Curtis Jones was given his marching orders.
That would just prove to be the tip of the iceberg when it came to some of the calls made yesterday, as VAR sunk to lower depths.
All of which left McManaman fuming, as the former Liverpool man and Defoe agreed that the on-field referee going to his VAR screen and watching a ‘freeze frame’ of Curtis Jones’ tackle didn’t help.
Curtis Jones’ red card
“I think no red card,” said McManaman. “Yes, it looks like a poor challenge, at the end. But I think Curtis Jones gets a bit of the ball. I think the follow-through and the momentum of him stretching for the tackle goes over the top of the ball and collides with Bissouma.”
Defoe gave his view: “I think it is the momentum of the challenge. He is unlucky. But when you slow it down, it looks worse than it is – when the referee went to the monitor and he saw that freeze frame, it almost made his mind up. I thought he was unlucky.”
McManaman added: “I don’t like this, at all. I don’t like that. The referee going over and a freeze frame on the collision when he should be seeing it in real-time and then making the judgment, then maybe finishing on that.
“I have got a huge issue with a few decisions, to be honest – I was really surprised.”
Liverpool lose unbeaten streak
That’s the first defeat of the season for Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool players, who seem to be doing it the hard way this season.
Either they fall behind or go down to ten men, and in some cases, ask Newcastle United fans, do both.
Amazingly enough, they have managed to showcase their worth in each of those matches and when they were down to nine men yesterday, it looked like they were going to do the same.
That Joel Matip own goal was the sucker punch of all sucker punches, but they have no time to dwell and they now have to move on.
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