Mark Clattenburg Confirms Liverpool Should've Been Allowed Through On Goal Before HT Vs Man Utd

Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has revealed Sadio Mane should've been allowed a chance at goal before half time of Liverpool vs Manchester United.

Mane was breaking away from the United defence on 45:54, but official Paul Tierney blew the whistle six seconds early.

Liverpool players protested the decision and Jurgen Klopp looked puzzled on the touchline. Clattenburg has now said in his Daily Mail column that the Premier League champions have a right to feel aggrieved.

"He wanted play to finish in a neutral area, as is standard for referees," Clattenburg begun.

"The problem was, in a split-second, Liverpool played a ball over the top and Sadio Mane was looking to get away on goal. Technically, Tierney should have waited until the minimum of one minute had been played.

"He was helped by the fact Mane and United defender Victor Lindelof then stopped playing, so we do not know what would have happened next.

"But I would not criticise Tierney for this incident. He had a very good game, it's just a shame we didn't have that real intensity."

The game would go on to end 0-0 and United remain top of the Premier League.

Reds captain Jordan Henderson commented on the controversy at full-time, explaining: "Yeah, we weren't happy about that, as you can imagine.

"Strange, very strange, you know I think he's through on goal if he doesn't blow, we were frustrated at half-time. There was still plenty of time for us to score the goal, but again just lacked the quality in the last bit."

Henderson played in central defence yesterday due to injuries in the Liverpool ranks, but was still upset to not come away with the win.

"We're disappointed, of course," he said. "I thought we did enough to win the game, especially first half (we had) a lot of the ball, creating chances, just couldn't find the back of the net really but they had one or two chances as well to be fair to them.

"I thought they were dangerous on the counter-attack and had one or two chances but overall I felt that we were the better team to win the game."