VAR Must Be Used At The Right Time – Klopp

Jurgen Klopp has questioned the usage of the video assistant referee in allowing Chelsea’s equalising goal to stand during Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.

Klopp felt the awarding of the free kick in the buildup — when Naby Keita was adjudged to have fouled Victor Moses — was particularly harsh, adding that he believed Alvaro Morata and Ross Barkley were in offside positions from the resulting set-piece.

“Both discussable,” he said at his postmatch news conference. “I don’t think it’s a foul. He plays the ball and then he touched afterwards, but things like that happen.

“We constantly touch each other with feet, with arms and stuff like that. Not all of that is a foul. It’s a clear ball and the linesman wanted to give a throw-in. That’s it’s a foul and then a yellow card is always strange.

“And then the situation, I didn’t see it in the game, of course, but when they started using the VAR I knew it was close, obviously. It was close, it was really close. I don’t think I have the Liverpool glasses on my nose, I would say it’s offside. That’s then how it is.

“You have two players that are clearly offside and they block. Not to forget, they don’t touch the ball. They block players, my players. That means a big impact in the situation.

“Then the other one, Barkley makes the header and, for me, is offside as well — not much. But I don’t expect that the ref would see that.

“Then you have the VAR and then you have a look and it’s close. Why do you use it if you don’t want to make the decision then? That’s all. It was clear.

“I don’t feel bad, it was only unlucky. You have a free kick that was maybe no free kick. I think in a lot of situations nobody whistles it.

“And the other one, maybe in the future when you use VAR then you say: ‘OK, that’s offside’. I don’t expect using in situations like this, the VAR, to be honest. But if you use it, make a decision.”