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Why Jurgen Klopp's Criticism Of Kevin Friend Is In Breach Of FA Rules

Why Jurgen Klopp's Criticism Of Kevin Friend Is In Breach Of FA Rules

The Liverpool manager wasn't happy after they drew 1-1 with West Ham despite everyone else thinking they got the better of decisions.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Jurgen Klopp was fuming after Liverpool drew 1-1 with West Ham United on Monday night. The German's annoyance carried over to his post match interview and he could face punishment for what he said.

Liverpool dropped points in the race for the Premier League title to leave themselves just three points clear of Manchester City, just less than a week after the gap was nearly seven, after a 1-1 draw with West Ham.

Manager Jurgen Klopp wasn't happy with the result in the slightest but the German wasn't unhappy with the performance as much as he was annoyed at the referee Kevin Friend.

After the match the German could be seen berating Friend but it was actually the Reds who benefitted from a poor referee decision after the officials failed to spot James Milner offside as he assisted their goal.

After the match though Klopp explained his annoyance at the ref saying, "I heard our goal was offside, I'm pretty sure the ref knew that in the second half. In 50-50 situations or 60-40 it was always a free-kick for the other team, which was hard and did not make life easy.

"As a human being, if I know I have made a big mistake in the first half, I don't want to open the gap any more."

The suggestion from the former Borussia Dortmund manager is that the ref decided to make decisions in the oppositions favour to even things up.

According to FA laws managers can criticise refs however, "A participant will be considered in breach of Rule E3 if their media comments about a match official imply bias, attack their integrity or are particularly personally offensive in nature."

Klopp tears into Kevin Friend. Image: PA Images
Klopp tears into Kevin Friend. Image: PA Images

The Premier League leaders nearly had even less to complain about as late on Divock Origi had a chance to win the game for them, and should have, but was once again in an offside position that wasn't flagged by the officials.

One man who clearly wasn't buying the former Borussia Dortmund manager's annoyance was West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini:

Was Klopp right to be annoyed about the refereeing?

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Topics: Manchester City, Liverpool, Football News, James Milner, Premier League, West Ham United, Jurgen Klopp, West Ham