Speaking on ESPN, Liverpool legend Steve Nicol has been discussing Liverpool’s game against Tottenham and Paul Tierney’s decision to not award the Reds a penalty after Diogo Jota was seemingly fouled in the penalty area.
The Portuguese forward was in on goal before he was bundled over by Emerson Royal, and despite the fact the Brazilian clearly shoved Jota to the ground, play was waved on.
Luckily, we live in an age of VAR, so the penalty shout was evaluated a second time, but even after a review in Stockley Park, the on-field decision stood.
Nicol was incensed by this decision, stating that it was beyond comprehension how a referee and a VAR could agree on this incident.
What’s been said about Liverpool’s penalty incident?
Nicol certainly thought it was a penalty, and he gave his view on US TV station ESPN.
“He didn’t come to a stop. His motion was natural, getting himself in the position to take his shot with his left foot. One of the reasons we have VAR is because referees sometimes don’t actually see what happened properly. That’s why we have VAR, so the fact that they didn’t go to that and the fact that someone in the VAR box agreed with the referee is way beyond comprehension for someone who has played the game, because it’s flat-out wrong,” Nicol said.
Spot on
We can’t help but agree with Nicol here.
Jota was shoved to the ground in the box, it was one of the clearest penalties you’re likely to see all season long.
We can appreciate that Paul Tierney may not have seen the incident clearly. After all, it happened very quickly and the penalty area was crowded, but the VAR had the chance to look at this a number of times, and it’s hard to understand how they came to this decision.
Unfortunately for Jurgen Klopp, the spot-kick wasn’t given and Liverpool dropped two points.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
