Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold has called for his side to ‘move on’ from their 2-1 defeat to Tottenham last weekend when VAR wrongfully disallowed Luis Diaz’s opening goal, which could have changed the outcome of the match. Jurgen Klopp has been particularly vocal about the mishap, claiming that the match should be replayed as he has never witnessed a mistake as significant previously.
Having been reduced to 10 men moments earlier, the Reds were denied a shock opening goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday after Diaz was ruled to have mistimed his run before firing past Guglielmo Vicario. However, Cristian Romero actually played the winger onside, prompting an apology from PGMOL.
The audio of the decision-making process has shown that VAR were aware that Diaz was onside but did not realise that the on-field decision was offside, therefore meaning that their call of ‘check complete’ was supposed to indicate that the goal was legitimate – only realising their mistake after the ball was back in play and ultimately too late.
Plenty of players, managers and pundits have spoken about the incident since, but Alexander-Arnold has conceded that the team must now move on and focus on the future. He told Sky Sports: “We’re just disappointed by it, by what’s gone on, but it’s not like me saying anything now is going to affect the decision that was made. It is what it is.
“(It’s) Disappointing because of all the hard work that we put into the game as players and for us not to get the result, potentially, because of a decision elsewhere, a mistake not on our behalf, is not a hurt but… We move forward.”
The message from the right-back could indicate a change in how Liverpool are now viewing the situation given that the Premier League has not once hinted that they would be willing to approve of the match being replayed. However, Alexander-Arnold’s message could also be a call for his manager to use the fury to spark the team into improving, rather than dwelling on the ‘human error’ and calling for an on-field resolution – as he did during his Europa League press conference in midweek.
Speaking ahead of his side’s match against Brighton this weekend, Alexander-Arnold remained consistent with his view on the situation when asked whether the Reds would have ‘trust issues’ with VAR going forward. The England international responded: “I wouldn’t say trust issues. I think decisions are decisions, sometimes they go for you and sometimes they go against you. What happened on the weekend for us as players and as a team is very disappointing and frustrating.
“But it’s passed us. There is nothing we can do as players now; the game has gone. We have just got to move forward and put it past us. VAR is a system that is in place, and it is something we can’t control as players. We’ve got to put our trust in the referees and the officials that use it and hope that they get the decisions right, and at times they don’t and at times they do. We’ve just got to hope that they get the decisions right as much as possible.”
