Jurgen Klopp’s ulterior motive for VAR replay request – He was doing a Sir Alex, says Souness

Jurgen Klopp didn’t actually think he was going to get Liverpool’s game against Tottenham replayed, he was copying the “master” Sir Alex Ferguson, says Graeme Souness.

A major VAR blunder cost Liverpool a goal in their 2-1 defeat to Tottenham last weekend as Luis Diaz’s striker was wrongly disallowed for offside.

After the PGMOL released the audio of the error, Klopp said the game should be replayed.

“The audio didn’t change it at all because I was not really interested in why things happen,” he said. “I saw the outcome, I saw a goal, and I saw it didn’t count. It’s really important that we deal with it in a proper way. The only outcome should be a replay…probably won’t happen.

“The argument against that will be if we open that gate everyone will ask for it. I think the situation is unprecedented. I’m 56 years old and I’m absolutely used to wrong decisions. But something like that as far as I can remember has never happened. That’s why it should be a replay.”

Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou doesn’t think it should, and neither does Souness, but the former Liverpool midfielder believes Klopp was simply trying to turn the ‘injustice they feel to the team’s advantage’.

In his column for the Daily Mail, Souness wrote: ‘I did not agree with Jurgen Klopp coming out to say he wanted last weekend’s game replayed.

‘Where does that all end? Everyone will want the same when they feel aggrieved. It opens the door to a 12-month season. I think Jurgen probably knows full well that there’s no possibility of it happening — but being granted a replay isn’t the point of asking for one.

‘He is now making the most of an opportunity to galvanise that group of players. Turning the injustice they feel to the team’s advantage. The criticism he might have received from some about his call for a replay won’t bother him one bit. He’s circling the wagons.

‘This is where Alex Ferguson was a master. For him at Manchester United, it was: “Us against the world.” For us at Glasgow Rangers, it was: “Nobody likes us. We don’t care.”

‘The VAR farce was so ridiculous that it seems to have given rise to some conspiracy theories in the past seven days. But I have to say that through all my years in British football I have not once witnessed a hint of deliberate bias and calculated wrongdoing affecting the outcome of a match.’

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