07 October 2023 , 09:12
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Liverpool legend Graeme Souness believes Jurgen Klopp calling for the Tottenham game to be replayed is an attempt to "galvanise" his squad like Sir Alex Ferguson used to do at Manchester United.
Liverpool suffered a 2-1 defeat to Spurs last week after a Luis Diaz goal was wrongly disallowed for offside due to a major VAR communication blunder. After the Premier League and 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."
Souness, who spent seven years at Liverpool as a player before returning to manage them, does not believe there should be a replay and feels that Klopp is attempting to turn the "injustice they feel to the team's advantage". In his column for the Daily Mail, Souness said: "I did not agree with Jurgen Klopp coming out to say he wanted last weekend's game replayed.
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"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.
Graeme Souness feels Jurgen Klopp's calls for a replay are a tactic to galvanise his Liverpool squad (Getty Images)"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."