Liverpool have gone over a year without winning a Premier League penalty at Anfield, but Jurgen Klopp has no time for conspiracy theories regarding an ‘agreement’ against his team.
Instead, the German is keen to highlight the refereeing inconsistencies he has witnessed during the early stages of this season, some of which he believes went in the Reds’ favour.
Liverpool have not been awarded a league spot-kick at home since Mohamed Salah missed from 12 yards in a 3-0 win over Huddersfield on October 28, 2017.
Klopp insisted there was ‘nobody to blame’ when asked about that statistic, but drew attention to a number of incorrect decisions from games his side have contested this term.
He said: “It’s not about a penalty at home. In the beginning of the season we had one or two situations where we were a bit lucky with ref decisions.
“I’m not sure if anyone told me after about a Huddersfield possible penalty with a James Milner handball, I didn’t watch it back.
“But, for example the Arsenal game and Cardiff: The goal Cardiff scored was offside and after the game nobody asked me - I’m not sure if it is too quick or whatever.
“It was offside, you can say it’s not too important but in the game it changed a few things. We said afterwards in a positive way because [we responded].
“At Arsenal, we scored a clear goal and the only headline you can find - probably - is, ‘Klopp says it is a clear goal’. But who is interested in what I say? It is a clear goal!
“Then there were two penalty situations with the goalkeeper and a referee said this one was a penalty and the other one was not - so, penalty for us.
“We talk about a situation [but] we would have won there 3-1.
“All these games at home we didn’t drop a lot of points in the last year, but of course it changes everything if you go in the box. There’s nobody to blame.
“We have to go in the box, we cannot do more, and if we can shoot we should shoot and if somebody makes a foul on us then it’s normal that you go down.
“That’s the situation but I don’t think there’s any agreement that Anfield penalties don’t fit and they don’t want to see them there.”
