Jurgen Klopp left baffled by Alexis Mac Allister’s red card during Liverpool’s win over Bournemouth
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was left baffled by Alexis Mac Allister’s red card during the Reds’ win over Bournemouth on Saturday, confused as to why VAR did not help overturn the decision.
The Reds beat the Cherries 3-1 at Anfield, recovering from conceding an early goal to register their first win of the Premier League season. However, it was not a straight forward afternoon for the home side and was made all the more difficult when the summer signing from Brighton was shown a straight red card just before the hour-mark.
What happened?
Mac Allister and Ryan Christie challenged for the ball, with the Bournemouth man narrowly beating him to it so the Argentina international’s in-step caught his opponent on the shin.
While there was contact and Klopp admits that it could have looked bad to the on-field official, it was clearly not a straight red on replay and the Reds manager doesn’t know why VAR did not encourage the referee to have a look at a replay.
Klopp’s reaction
“I saw the red card back and for sure we have to talk about it,” Klopp told Sky Sports. “I understand 100 per cent how it looks for a ref in that moment but when you see it back it is the inside of the foot and no power behind it.”
“It is not ruthless it is just mis-hit the ball and then hit slightly the shin of the other player. We saw harsher challenges which were not a red card and this shouldn’t have been. I don’t know exactly what we have to do, but we should talk about it again.”
Ex-players’ reactions
The feeling among ex-players was certainly that Mac Allister should not have been dismissed, with Gary Lineker tweeting: ‘Mac Allister sees red but it’s a nonsense. Referee and VAR at Anfield having a poor day.’ Chris Sutton added: ‘The Alexis Mac Allister red card today was a shocking decision… it did not fulfil the red card criteria in any aspect…and VAR did not help the on field referee!’
Liverpool survive dismissal
Goals from Luis Diaz, Mo Salah and Diogo Jota were enough to see Liverpool survive the dismissal and secure three points.
Conclusion
Jurgen Klopp was left baffled by Alexis Mac Allister’s red card during Liverpool’s win over Bournemouth on Saturday, confused as to why VAR did not help overturn the decision. The feeling among ex-players was certainly that Mac Allister should not have been dismissed, with Gary Lineker and Chris Sutton both voicing their opinions on social media. Despite the dismissal, goals from Luis Diaz, Mo Salah and Diogo Jota were enough to see Liverpool survive and secure three points.