Jurgen Klopp believes that referee Kevin Friend was making up for an obvious officiating error as Liverpool drew 1-1 away at West Ham.
The away side went 1-0 up thanks to Sadio Mane’s wonderful turn and finish, but the goal should not have stood as James Milner was clearly offside in the build-up.
Speaking after the game, Klopp acknowledged that his side were lucky to get away with that one, but he felt like Friend knew he’d made an error and as such, he was giving every marginal call in West Ham’s favour.
He said:
We score the goal which was offside. The referee must know that at half-time, it explains the second half because I think the referee knew and you saw there were a lot of strange situations, not decisive, just rhythm breakers.
Klopp was asked what he said to the referee after the game and replied:
I was really calm. He said we don’t talk at all. There were so many situations where it was 50-50 or 60-40… free kick for the other team. As a human being I know if I make a big mistake in the first half I don’t want to open the gap even more.
However, the Reds manager made it clear that he thought his side were not at their best and that West Ham were well-worthy of a point.
They scored the goal and it was a deserved draw. I didn’t see a good game from us, a couple didn’t perform at the highest level but that has happened before and it will happen in the future.
