Former Premier League official Mark Clattenburg claims Liverpool have benefitted from a mistake from referee Paul Tierney in their 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Darwin Nunez’s header in injury time sealed a vital win for Jurgen Klopp’s side, who have moved four points clear at the top of the Premier League.
But Forest were aggrieved as in the build up to Nunez’s winning goal, the ball was given to Liverpool after Ibrahima Konate went down with a head injury, despite Forest winger Callum Hudson-Odoi being in possession when play was stopped.
Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, confronted referee Tierney after the final whistle, while Forest coach Steven Reid was shown a red card after approaching the official on the pitch.
Last month, Marinakis brought Clattenburg to Forest in an advisory role to analyse the performance of referees, and speaking after the defeat to Liverpool, the former Premier League official said Tierney had made an error.
‘The law is quite clear,’ said Clattenburg.
‘The law states that the referee is entitled to stop the game if he feels there is a head injury. However, the ball has to go back to the team that has possession. Nottingham Forest clearly had that possession.
‘Nottingham Forest should have had the ball back and therefore possession of the ball, and the game is completely different. Liverpool have then gone on the attack and scored from it.
‘You can understand the frustration. Things just seem to be going against Nottingham Forest Football Club at the moment.
‘The owner is quite upset because they fought. He has invested a lot of money in the football club and he wants to see results. He feels another decision has gone against the football club. Quite rightly, he’s upset. I think everybody is upset and sad they have lost in this way. Hopefully the luck will change in the future.’
Klopp, meanwhile, played down the incident after the game and claimed the same situation in reverse happened in the first half.
‘It happened exactly the same in the first half, didn’t it? It was exactly the same, just the other way around, right? What would you say about that?’ Klopp said.
‘I expected it exactly to happen like that because it happened in the first half like that. If it wouldn’t have happened in the first half, I would have asked a question as well. But I would now assume that’s the rule.
‘I don’t know to be 100 per cent sure because it happened twice and twice it got handled exactly the same.
‘So, I don’t really see the reason for the discussions because that’s it and I don’t know how many passes we had to play to arrive there and score the goal. But I understand 100 per cent the excitement and the anger and stuff like this of Nottingham, of course.
‘They fight for everything and I understand that, but I think with the particular situation where it was twice the same then I would say that’s consistent.’
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