Jurgen Klopp has questioned why VAR was not used for Liverpool’s clash with Manchester City last night.
The technology is not used in the League Cup until the semi-final stage but the German tactician believes that referee David Coote and his assistants looked confused at times without the extra help.
“The first chance of Haaland, at the start of the game, was offside. You don’t know? Yes it was. I tell you. That gives the game direction,” Klopp told Sky Sports (via Sports Mole).
“It was like, bump, ‘oh my god, they are through’, it was offside, but no flag up, and it gives you a bad feeling. I would say if we had VAR, the referees are used to VAR, and all of a sudden you tell them not today. It looked like in a couple of situations they were waiting for it, or thinking there was still VAR.
“But there were a couple of offside decisions, where everyone in the stadium was convinced they were offside. We’ll never know probably because we can’t play them back.
“But it makes sense if you play a competition and everywhere is VAR [Premier League], why not, especially in a game like this. I understand in earlier rounds it’s not possible on all levels, but this, City-Liverpool, all the technical things are here, so why shouldn’t we use it?”
It doesn’t really make sense to introduce VAR at the semi-final stage – if it hasn’t been used in the earlier rounds, then it shouldn’t be used at all.
But you can certainly see where Klopp is coming from – we’ve become so accustomed to having the technology in the Premier League and Champions League that it felt rather odd to not have it.
At times it felt like the linesmen were keeping their flag down and forgetting that VAR wasn’t available to spot any incorrect offside calls.
You’d be right in saying that there were no major decisions that the referee got wrong, but the FA Cup champions may feel aggrieved to have not been awarded a penalty after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was downed by Nathan Ake in the area.
We return to Premier League action on Boxing Day against Aston Villa – VAR will be in use at Villa Park.
David Coote is a disgrace anyway!