Liverpool’s VAR woes continue in Spurs draw as Jurgen Klopp left in disbelief

Liverpool suffered heartbreak in a dramatic match in north London with Tottenham which featured controversial VAR calls, two red cards and a late own goal. Liverpool had Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota sent off with Jurgen Klopp’s side battling to hold on for a point in the final stages, only for Joel Matip’s own goal in the final seconds to hand Tottenham all three points. Express Sport picks out four main talking points from the north London match.

Liverpool’s VAR woes

VAR will be in the spotlight once again for the incident in the first half. Why weren’t lines drawn for Luis Diaz’s supposed offside goal? It seemed incredibly quick that a decision from VAR was made that Diaz was offside, but replays appeared to show Cristian Romero’s boot keeping him on.

There won’t be as many grievances over Curtis Jones’ red card, although it could be deemed unlucky for the midfielder after his foot appeared to slip over the ball. It’s not the first game against Tottenham where Liverpool have felt hard done by from officials and VAR.

Klopp was furious back in December 2021 in what proved to be a controversial 2-2 draw between the two sides and the Liverpool boss had to apologise in the aftermath for his angry outburst.

Klopp unimpressed by Jota

The other big incident in this match came late in the second half when Diogo Jota was shown his second yellow in quick succession. More telling though was Klopp’s reaction on the sidelines as he didn’t appear to try and fight the decision, suggesting his disproval at Jota’s tackle.

The Portuguese star could argue his first yellow was harsh, but his second was undeniable and the kind of tackle you just can’t make while on a booking. With 10 men, Liverpool were still in with a chance of taking all three points. But with nine men they were left battling to hang on with 15 minutes remaining and it proved costly in the end.

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Gomez steps up

While most of the focus will be on the decisions that went against Liverpool, the performance of Joe Gomez at right-back shouldn’t go unnoticed. He was caught out for Tottenham’s goal, largely because he had to cover more centrally with Liverpool down to 10 men.

But he kept Tottenham quiet down their left flank for most of the match and even looked threatening going forward at times. Klopp abandoned his request to get Gomez pushing more centrally and the defender looked far more comfortable concentrating on his defensive responsibilities.

Missed opportunity?

With Wolves beating Manchester City earlier in the day, Liverpool had a chance of going top of the Premier League. Granted going down to 10 men was never ideal, but Klopp’s side still looked in with a chance of picking up all three points at that point.

Losing Jota to a second red card proved costly in the end and Liverpool will be left wondering what could have been against the in-form Tottenham side. Given how tight things are already at the top, Liverpool know they can’t afford many slip ups this season.

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