James Maddison takes cheeky dig at England teammate Trent Alexander-Arnold after VAR controversy

James Maddison aimed a cheeky dig at England teammate Trent Alexander-Arnold in the wake of the VAR controversy that followed Tottenham’s victory over Liverpool.

Spurs sealed a 2-1 win over Jurgen Klopp’s side on 30 September in a game where Luis Diaz saw a first-half effort wrongly ruled out for offside. The PGMOL [Professional Game Match Officials Limited] admitted a ‘significant human error’ had been made in ruling out the goal shortly after full-time.

The refereeing body later released audio of the decision being made which revealed the chaos erupting in the VAR room – and the panic when it was realised a huge mistake had been made.

In the days that followed, Klopp would call for the Premier League match to be replayed. ‘I wasn’t sitting there waiting. What I want to say is, as big as football is for us, that we deal with it in the proper way,’ he said.

Maddison takes a cheeky dig at Alexander-Arnold

While that particular storm has begun to settle, Spurs star Maddison couldn’t resist a jibe at Liverpool star Alexander-Arnold after their pair arrived at St George’s Park with the rest of the England squad ahead of games against Australia and Italy.

Sharing a picture of Alexander-Arnold gesturing towards him, Maddison wrote on Instagram: ‘Still asking for a replay!’

Klopp’s reaction to the VAR controversy

Liverpool lost that game in north London after a last-minute own goal from Joel Matip with Klopp further frustrated by red cards shown to Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota.

While he accepted the error made by VAR officials Darren England and Dan Cook was an honest one, the Reds boss insisted other solutions should have been discussed during the game – including Spurs allowing his side to score a goal unchallenged to make up for the error.

‘The argument is if we open that gate, it is so unprecedented. I am 56 years old, I am used to wrong decisions, all these kind of things. But something like that never happened,’ Klopp said.

‘If it would happen again then I think the replay would be the right thing to do, or the ref has the opportunity to bring both coaches together and say “sorry we made a mistake but we can sort it, let Liverpool score a goal and we start from there.’”

Conclusion

While Maddison’s dig was lighthearted, the VAR controversy surrounding Liverpool’s match against Tottenham was no laughing matter. Klopp was understandably frustrated by the mistake and called for a replay, however this was not possible due to the rules of the Premier League. It is hoped that similar mistakes will not be made in future and that VAR will continue to improve.

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