When Liverpool were awarded two penalties in their 6-0 thrashing of Leeds United on Wednesday night, they surpassed Manchester United and became the team that has been awarded the most spot-kicks in Premier League history.
The Anfield outfit have now been awarded 171 penalties with United on 169, and former FIFA referee Keith Hackett has explained that star men Mo Salah and Sadio Mane are the reason why Klopp’s side are awarded so many penalties.
“In a way, this is relatively simple to explain,” Hackett told Football Insider.
“I have no doubts that Liverpool spend quite a lot of time in their opponent’s penalty area. You’re not going to get penalty kicks if you’re playing in defence.
“In Mane and Salah, as we saw against Leeds, they’ve got players with pace who can beat defenders and get penalties. I can understand it.
“At Anfield, it is a fairly tight pitch and those sorts of things play into it.
“I wouldn’t read anything into it apart from they are attacking more.”
Sometimes, the only way for teams to stop us from scoring is by committing fouls in the penalty area.
We dominate most of the games that we play, especially at Anfield, and with the skilful and talented attacking players we have in our squad there’s no surprise they’re regularly fouled in the penalty box.
The two penalties that the Egyptian King netted on Wednesday night took his Premier League tally to 19 goals this term and the No. 11 will be hoping to find the back of the net when he come’s up against his former team Chelsea in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
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