I am hopeful Saturday’s three points earned at the expense of Bournemouth will be the first of many this season.
There were worrying parts of our performance, the first 10 minutes in particular, but we got the win. There was a decent reaction from the team and we dug deep to come out on top over 90 minutes.
The main thing for me is that we’re scoring goals. Although we only got one at Chelsea, we are creating chances and we will continue to get better. When Klopp gets the midfielder he wants, you will see Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister pushed further up the pitch.
The balance in attack can get better when there are three players up there instead of our current approach of three with Cody Gakpo dropped back. I thought Gakpo played pretty well on Saturday, to his credit, but he is not fully used to that midfield role and sometimes doesn’t know where to go. The holding midfielder area, we’ve had problems in the last couple of games and the club are looking for that type of player.
As for the red card decision, I am really not sure what can be said as to how Alexis Mac Allister was sent off. I am baffled by that call.
It is not a red card, there is no malice in it at all. Mac Allister went for the ball and slightly mistimed it. The Bournemouth player did Mac Allister no favours by going down in the way he did, too. Aside from this decision, I actually thought the referee had a decent game.
Where the issue came from was the fact VAR did not tell the referee, Thomas Bramall, to go to the monitor and review the footage. Just because you go to the monitor doesn’t mean it is automatically going to be overturned, but at least go and look at it!
Paul Tierney was the man in charge of VAR for the game and it is well-documented we have experienced a number of issues with him in the past.
The fact Tierney has watched that tackle back and believed there was no need to change the on-field decision is remarkable. Football players and managers are punished for mistakes they make, so why should Premier League officials get away with committing errors that can have such an impact on how games pan out? Tierney should be taken off duty for the upcoming weekend.
Liverpool have now appealed the decision, but who knows whether or not it will be overturned. If you ask any neutral supporter whether Mac Allister should have been sent off, you would probably get around 90 per cent who would say it has to be rescinded.
That tells you everything. We all know what a red card looks like and that’s not it. We have seen far worse challenges go unpunished.
