Mo Salah could be forgiven for feeling more than a little frustrated at the lack of support and protection he receives from officials following the latest refusal to award him a penalty.
The Egyptian was put through one on one, being eventually brought down as he was getting his shot off after being harried by his opponent, and the lack of a spot-kick award had him positively raging around the hour mark.
“Salah doesn’t go down, he stays on his feet. Eventually he gets half a shot off and says well give me my penalty now. Because he hasn’t gone down, he doesn’t get it,” Pat Nevin told BBC Radio 5 Live (via BBC Sport). “He’s furious and I kind of understand.”
The Merseysiders currently find themselves 3-1 up against the visitors courtesy of goals from Bobby Firmino and Darwin Nunez.
READ MORE: Liverpool’s next owners: the best and worst case scenarios after FSG statement – Opinion
The approach to awarding fouls leaves our No.11, and others like him, in something of a tricky position.
Ideally, we want to encourage attackers to stay on their feet but it seems there’s very little in the way of incentive to do so when a penalty could have potentially been won had Salah gone down early and made the most of the contact on him.
You can understand why Jurgen Klopp was left frothing with rage during the 1-0 win over Manchester City given how often opponents are given the freedom to kick our Egyptian King up and down the park.
EOTK INSIDER: FSG want to sell Liverpool? What’s actually going to happen?… and more
A VAR panel should not comprise of only one referee. The panel should have at least three members, whereby decisions can be made as a a group, rather leaving the all important decisions to the indosyncrasies of just one member.
This is paramount in all matches, especially in cup finals .
Yes, it’s easier to pay off 1 ref compared to 3. Let’s call it like it is…corruption. If folks are betting on a game, and the game is being manipulated like this without good enough justification, it should be investigated. Why was De Bruyne given a favourable decision? Money talks, huh?