Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp expressed the opinion that the champions were denied of two clear penalties during yesterday’s loss from Southampton. In the first situation, Georginio Wijnaldum’s shot on goal was blocked by Jack Stevens’ hand, and then Sadio Mane fell into the penalty area after contact with Kyle Walker-Peters. In both cases, referee Andre Mariner did not rule in favor of Liverpool. According to Klopp the decisions would have been different if other teams had suffered from these situations. The German compared the number of penalties awarded in favor of his team with those of the team of Manchester United, with which Liverpool currently share the first place in the standings.
At the press conference, the German said about one of the situations: “I turned around, we had a really good view of it. It looked like a clear penalty. I turned to the fourth official, he said ‘we checked already, no penalty’. That’s the 100 per cent truth. They checked it already.”
“Someone tell me how quickly they could look at all these different angles. You have those situations. Last year, or two years ago, against Leicester people said that Sadio Mane goes down easy. If this boy would go down easy we would have this time a penalty and last game a penalty, a stonewall penalty but what Andre Marriner did with Mane tonight I’m not sure that’s okay. The boy tried absolutely everything. There were a few great challenges but there were a lot of situations which should have been free-kicks as well. The last situation when he goes down in the box he hits him in the end with his left foot and that’s another penalty.” , Klopp added.
Klopp finished with: “We cannot change. I hear now that Man United had more penalties in two years than I had in five-and-a-half years. I’ve no idea if that’s my fault, or how that can happen.”
If we take into account the period from the beginning of last season so far, United have received twice as many penalties as Liverpool – 20 against 10. However, if the whole time period from October 2015 so far is included, the situation is a little different. United again have an advantage in this regard, but it is not so serious. Statistics show that the 20-time champion has received 41 penalties and Klopp’s team – 30. The difference of 11 penalties, on average United had about two penalties more per season than their rival.
At the beginning of the period of Jurgen Klopp, the ratio is even in favor of Liverpool, but if you take the last two and a half seasons, the German is right in his statement. As of August of the 2018/19 season, Manchester United have received 32 penalties against the aforementioned 30 for Liverpool since October 2015.
