Jamie Redknapp has suggested that Harry Kane’s status as England captain may have swayed the decision to only award a yellow card for his tackle on Andy Robertson.
The 28-year-old attracted controversy with a challenge that Jurgen Klopp insisted could have broken the Scottish international’s leg had it remained planted on the turf.
“Red card. I think he’s reckless and out of control, I think he just scored the crowd were up, fever pitch,” the former midfielder told Sky Sports (via football.london). “When you go in for a challenge, I think I’ve seen players sent off for a lot less than that, sometimes the reputation of being England captain does help you because that is a really late challenge.”
With VAR and its many angles available, it was supremely difficult for the German to come to terms with how the England international had been allowed to remain on the pitch.
Whilst we wouldn’t like to draw conclusions about the influence of Kane’s international captaincy, we can acknowledge that it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility for it to have factored into the officials’ decision-making – though we’d expect it not to for a professional referee.
Regardless, there’s simply no excuse good enough to overlook the final decision; one can argue that Paul Tierney could be forgiven for a potentially obstructed view but VAR can hardly get away with the same explanation.
We’ll be hoping for a thorough review of the decision-making of the Englishman and his team at Stockley Park, though we’d expect Klopp to receive the brunt of any punishment for his post-match comments.
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