Jurgen Klopp will manage his last Liverpool game this weekend, and he’ll be leaving the club with a number of potential regrets.
Klopp has won all there is to win at Anfield, but if the cookie crumbled ever so slightly differently, the Reds would’ve won so much more.
Liverpool lost the league by one point on two separate occasions in recent years, while they also lost two Champions League finals.
Speaking to The Anfield Wrap, Klopp has been discussing some of these near-misses, and he’s pointed towards one refereeing decision that he believes cost him a league title.
Jurgen Klopp names refereeing decision that cost him a title
Klopp spoke about an incident involving a Rodri handball against Everton in 2022 that wasn’t given.
“You pick yourself up and go again after not winning the league from a goal from Vinnie Kompany or a not given handball from Rodri. It was a crazy situation that handball,” Klopp said.
“I don’t know where we played, but we were on the bus already and the game was on the tele.
“We watched it and the whole bus shouted ‘Handball! Wait, he’s not getting it?” You can’t change it, but not getting there and then having three weeks to prepare for a Champions League final, these few years were mad,” Klopp said.
Rodri’s handball should’ve been given
It’s been a couple of years now, but it’s hard to understate just how poor a decision this was.
Even Dermot Gallagher agreed at the time that Rodri’s handball should’ve been given.
“It is a penalty, no doubt. I think the VAR inspected it for too long. Paul Tierney is looking through players, he can’t see the incident and Rodri is covering him. I think this should have been a VAR decision,” Gallagher said.
Of course, if a penalty was given, there’s no guarantee that it would’ve been converted, but if Everton did manage to draw that game, the tide of the title race may have been turned in Liverpool’s favour.
This decision clearly still plays on Klopp’s mind at least a little bit.