VAR, of course, was meant to level the playing field, remove all doubt over refereeing decisions but, as Monday’s game underlined, it has only muddied the waters.
Since Klopp arrived at Anfield on October 8, 2015, the Reds have been awarded 30 penalties in the Premier League. Leicester have won the most during that period (45), with Manchester City second (43) and United third (41). Interestingly, though, 32 of the latter’s spot-kicks have arrived since the start of the 2018-19 season, meaning Klopp is technically correct.
The theory put forward in Italy to explain the number of big calls that seemed to go Juve’s way was ‘psychological conditioning’, the argument that referees had been subconsciously trained to side with the ‘Grand Old Lady of Italian football’. Of course, the ‘Calciopoli’ scandal cast that claim in a whole other light, allowing the conspiracy theorists to run riot.
Since the start of 2018-19, United have won 48 penalties in all competitions – 11 more than second-placed Juve. Ball-hogs Man City sit 10th on that particular list, with 30 spot-kicks, while the last two champions of Europe, Liverpool and Bayern Munich, rank joint-24th (24) and joint-18th (25), respectively.
Bayern is merely the 27th most-fouled team in Europe since 2018-19. Liverpool is 46th, with City all the way down in 57th. The natural assumption would be that United are among those that draw the most fouls but they are only 10th in the standings. Even for fouls in the final third, United are joint-fifth.
This is a particularly interesting aspect of the argument, for two reasons. Firstly, United are undoubtedly an excellent counterattacking side but they rank below Paris Saint-Germain, City, Liverpool and even Wolves for ‘Fast Breaks’ in all competitions since 2018-19.
Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial are part of the reason why. They have won 18 penalties (nine apiece) over the past two-and-a-half seasons – no other club has such a prolific duo. Neither PSG, with Neymar and Mbappe (15) nor Liverpool, with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane (14).
For now, though, it’s simply a fact that United are winning an unusually high amount of penalties. And Klopp is just going to have to deal with it. And, for Liverpool’s sake, hopefully, a lot better than Benitez…
Penchester United, PDP club
Its their norms since Sir Alex era