One Sky Sports reporter noticed the instant reactions from Jurgen Klopp and Charlie Taylor to Cody Gakpo’s disallowed goal in the first half of Liverpool’s clash against Burnley this evening.
The Dutchman thought he’d doubled the Reds’ lead just before the half-hour mark when he slammed a loose ball to the home side’s net at Turf Moor, only for the strike to be chalked off as Darwin Nunez was adjudged to have fouled the Clarets defender in the build-up.
The German naturally looked rather displeased over the officials’ decision, while the reaction from the Burnley player was even more telling.
Pete Gill, who’s been providing updates for Sky Sports’ live web commentary, wrote (18:02): “Jurgen Klopp doesn’t look happy with that decision. Had the referee not blown for a foul, l suspect VAR wouldn’t have overturned it – or deemed it a clear and obvious error.
“One interesting aspect to the incident was Taylor’s reaction. He put his hands to his head. He clearly didn’t feel he was fouled.”
READ MORE: (Video) Nunez ends scoring drought with first-time finish that has Klopp clapping
Subsequent replays showed that, if there even was any contact from Nunez on Taylor, it was minimal, so Klopp and Liverpool are right to feel aggrieved over Gakpo’s goal being disallowed.
It comes just three days after the Reds were denied a stonewall penalty for a Martin Odegaard handball which somehow went unpunished, and even though today’s incident wasn’t as blatant, it still seems to be very soft to merit a goal being chalked off.
While the Reds would only have themselves to blame for not winning the match from here (at the time of writing), such was their first-half dominance, it doesn’t help when referees and VAR arrive at decisions which, to put it politely, leave us scratching our heads.
That Taylor seemed resigned to the goal being given was a big clue which went undetected by Paul Tierney and by those at Stockley Park, but hopefully it won’t be a major talking point after the full-time whistle.
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