Jamie Carragher reckons the Premier League will be praying that Liverpool don’t miss out on the title by a single point after their VAR saga.
Jurgen Klopp has put on record his hope for a replay of the Reds’ defeat at Tottenham after the controversy surrounding Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal and the subsequent revelations over how the refereeing team handled the decision.
While ex-defender Carragher, 45, disagrees with pleas for a replay, he expects league bosses to be mindful of the issue as the season unfolds.
He wrote in his Telegraph column: “The Premier League now finds itself in a position where it must hope Liverpool are not involved in another title race – or a push for Champions League football – which is decided by a single point.
“The fact that Klopp has twice lost the Premier League title to Manchester City in such circumstances is undoubtedly on his mind. Nobody knows better than him that every point is crucial and is worth fighting for – especially when it has been denied your team because of reasons beyond your control.
“Whether you agree with him or not, if that point is the difference between success and failure this season it is wishful thinking to believe that Klopp has said everything there is to say on the significance of last Saturday.”
Liverpool narrowly missed out on the 2013-14 title after a controversial offside call denied Raheem Sterling a goal against eventual victors Manchester City, while they were also unhappy about a number of tight calls in the 2021-22 season.
Carragher has outlined his surprise that the referees during the Tottenham game didn’t bring back the match to rectify the error, despite it being deemed impossible given it had kicked off.
He added: “VAR was created to identify and eradicate ‘clear and obvious errors’ not multiply them.
“What would have happened had they stopped the game? The VAR would have been congratulated, not vilified, and the PGMOL would have been relieved. That would have been preferable to the mess of the last six days.”
