Karma struck hard and fast for Jurgen Klopp, in his own eyes, with the manager admitting in his post-match presser after the 4-3 win over Tottenham that he’d suffered with a pulled hamstring and a yellow card from Paul Tierney.
It has in the last few hours emerged that the Englishman had been keen to give the former Mainz head coach his marching orders but had been advised otherwise by the fourth official – the same individual the German had remonstrated in front of after Diogo Jota’s winning goal.
“Paul Tierney came over to me, I didn’t expect for a second a red card, and he said: ‘For me, it’s a red card but because of him (the 4th official) it’s a yellow’. I opened the box which I didn’t want to open,” the 55-year-old told reporters ahead of the Reds’ upcoming clash with Fulham on Wednesday.
Repercussions won’t have ended there either, with the FA expected to take a very dim view on the event in their review, which could easily see the Reds boss handed a touchline ban leaving him in the stands until the start of the 2023/24 campaign.
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Far from an ideal situation for a club still harbouring hopes of a top four finish, albeit very unlikely hopes in light of the advantage Newcastle United and Manchester United have built up in the Champions League spots.
Will Paul Tierney referee as normal in the Premier League this week?
Keifer MacDonald of the Liverpool Echo has reported that PGMOL have taken Tierney off the pitch for the upcoming round of Premier League fixtures this weekend.
Instead, the man formerly in the middle will take up the roles of fourth official and Video Assistant referee following the fallout from Sunday.
It’s an interesting decision from the refereeing body given that it had found no wrongdoing on the part of the official after reviewing communications between himself and Klopp on the sidelines.
Perhaps, then, action has been taken to protect the referee amid the ongoing controversy, though it could reasonably suggest that Tierney isn’t deemed entirely blameless in the matter.
From our point of view here at Empire of the Kop, his decision-making during Liverpool games certainly doesn’t suggest otherwise.