It is high time the authorities brought Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp to book over his unacceptable touchline antics. He is becoming a serial offender.
Klopp’s latest transgression during the fractious but exciting Tottenham match at Anfield saw him run right up towards the fourth official John Brooks to celebrate Liverpool’s fourth goal. The German was shown a yellow card by Paul Tierney but it should have resulted in his immediate removal to the stands.
Match officials should not have to rely on sanctions being applied by a disciplinary panel days after these incidents following them submitting a report. Match Officials must do their job on the day and enforce the law and deal with this kind of behavior, which, unfortunately, Klopp has shown too often before.
Klopp has every right to show passion – and indeed his complaint to Tierney was a valid one – but he must make his point within acceptable limits.
This weakness by our elite officials to not act during a game promotes poor behavior at the grassroots level and tarnishes the image of the Premier League around the world. Managers at a lower level will look at how Klopp behaved and think it is okay to do the same.
Klopp’s comments about the referee – “We have our history with Tierney, I really don’t know what he has against us” – should be dealt with by Howard Webb, the referees manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited who should organize a quick meeting with the official, the Liverpool manager, Richard Bevan of the League Managers Association and a director of the PGMOL to resolve these issues.
It was not the only flashpoint during the game. Tierney should have issued a red card for a high boot by Liverpool’s Diogo Jota into the face of Oliver Skipp.
I would say to video assistant referee Chris Kavanagh this was a clear and obvious error and you should have intervened.
The challenge endangered the safety of his opponent and the sanction for this offense is a red card.