Liverpool allegedly intends to challenge Curtis Jones’ contentious dismissal during Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur.
At the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium during the first half, the Reds midfielder was sent off for a crushing tackle on Yves Bissouma as both players competed for the ball.
Jones put his leg in, his foot slid over the ball, grabbed Bissouma’s ankle with his studs showing, and the 22-year-old received a yellow card before VAR officer Darren England stepped in to make the call.
Jones would face a three-match domestic suspension against Brighton & Hove Albion, Everton, and Nottingham Forest after Hooper enhanced his penalty to a straight red card after checking the monitor.
Asserting that the slow-motion replays made the challenge appear worse than it actually was, Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp told the press: “Probably everybody here in the room thinks it’s a clear red card, I see that different, just because I played football and most of you probably didn’t.
Rolling over the ball while applying full force, the ball then strikes the crucial portion of the leg. When you see it in slow motion, it appears terrible. In my opinion, it’s not even close to being that horrible when you see it in action. Curtis did not act maliciously in the slightest. Although the game is being played in real time, our judgments are being made in slow motion.
The Athletic reports that Liverpool plans to appeal Jones’s dismissal and impending three-game suspension in the hopes of clearing the 22-year-old’s name.
Jones, a survivor of Liverpool’s midfield makeover in the summer, has been a regular starter for the Reds so far this season, making four Premier League appearances and captaining his childhood club against Leicester City in the EFL Cup last week.
Son Heung-min’s opening goal and Joel Matip’s 94th-minute own goal put an end to Liverpool’s undefeated start to the season. Jones’ disputed red card was only the beginning of the officiating debate on Saturday.
After Jones was dismissed from the game, Luis Diaz scored a goal for Liverpool across the goal, but the offside flag was raised, and play continued from a Tottenham free kick even though replays revealed that Cristian Romero had played the Colombian onside.
The PGMOL said that a “significant human error” had happened at that precise time, when England apparently thought Diaz’s goal had been given and only quickly checked with the VAR system after realizing the attacker was in fact onside.
However, after being substituted at halftime due to injury, Diogo Jota was also dismissed for two challenges on Destiny Udogie that warranted caution. Klopp’s nine players held out until Matip diverted Pedro Porro’s cross into his own net.
Liverpool announced that they will investigate a number of alternatives after the PGMOL’s admission following the officials’ “unacceptable” blunder over Diaz’s goal, but Alexis Mac Allister may now be in danger with the FA.
The Argentine, whose red card against Bournemouth earlier this season was overturned on appeal, claimed in a social media post that referee Hooper was Tottenham’s 12th man. According to a different source, he may be charged with undermining the integrity of the official.
In the meanwhile, the North London club strongly denounced the abhorrent racial insults sent against Tottenham left-back Udogie online after the game.
