Klopp baffled as VAR bizarrely rules out Harvey Elliott’s sweet strike at Burnley

It’s safe to say that Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool have had some strange VAR calls in their the Premier League outings as we reach the midway point of the campaign. In September, a mix-up in the VAR room meant that Luis Díaz had a goal chalked off against Spurs - for which the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) had to admit was an error and issued an apology. Tonight at Turf Moor, Klopp’s team had the ball in the back of the net four times but only have of the counted. Fans were left scratching their heads at why first-half effort from Cody Gakpo and another just after the break from Harvey Elliott were subjected to scrutiny by VAR, then not given.

Gakpo’s didn’t stand for an alleged foul by Darwin Núñez in the build-up. On 53 minutes, Elliott stuck out a foot to steer the ball inside the near post after a one-two with Gravenberch. Again, the move was reviewed by referee Paul Tierney for a possible offside. After studying the footage, a decision was made - no goal. The player who was offside and obstructing the keeper’s view was Mohamed Salah - only because he had been shoved offside by Jordan Beyer as the ball was played.

Klopp was inevitably asked about Elliott’s disallowed goal in his pitchside interview. “Only somebody who never played football can make that an offside call. But they will tell us again, it’s an offside situation or whatever. It’s too often now, he looked at it for five minutes, it’s insane. If you’ve ever played football, then it can happen - ‘Oh, the offside rule, let me see, page 7... There’s somebody between him and the goalie’,” he told TNT Sports pundits after the game.

VAR wasn’t mentioned in the Reds’ manager’s press conference - the German coach was happy with the result, how his team played and to be top of the table - if only until tomorrow night when Arsenal meet West Ham. Another positive was that his Boxing Day record remains intact - six wins from six in this fixture with just one goal conceded.

Dream return for Jota

“As long as I’ve been at Liverpool, we’ve never done it the easy way so why should we start now. For a long time, we caused Burnley so many problems. We played a super game - it was the last game in a very busy period and you cannot really expect that but we did. I really liked the game we played,” Klopp explained in the press room. “But we should have scored more - that’s clear. The game stays open and Burnley has massive chances to score at the second post... In the end, we deserved to win the game. I would say, two perfect finishes from Darwin and then Diogo, who only sneaked into the list. We were going to give him more training but thought he could have that here in Burnley tonight. Yeah, two-nil, no injuries, all good”.

Villa drop points

Liverpool top the standings on 42 points, two ahead of Arsenal and three ahead of Aston Villa, who surrendered a two-goal lead to end up losing at Manchester United with Rasmus Hojlund finally getting off the mark. “It’s fantastic, I can’t barely keep my arms down... “ Klopp joked, “42 points, that’s really pleasing, really cool. If Arsenal win, we cannot be more than a point away from the top of the table - that’s within punching distance. Happy New Year, see you in 2024″.