Tim Sherwood thinks that Liverpool got away with a penalty call against Leeds United last night.
Sherwood was covering the game for Optus Sport. The pundit wasn’t happy with Alisson Becker’s challenge on Dan James in the first half.
“James gets there quicker than Alisson expects, he tries to kick the ball away. He makes contact with his heel, but he also makes contact with James,” said Sherwood at half-time.
“James thinks he can score, if he stays on the floor and makes more of it they give him a penalty.”
An early scare
It was a heart-in-mouths moment for Liverpool fans. Alisson is one of the best ‘keepers in the world with the ball at his feet. But on this occasion his casual demeanour put Liverpool under pressure.
On the replays, you can see that as the Brazilian tries to clear the ball, it bounces off his heel and back towards the goal.
His follow through does lead to James going over. But there doesn’t appear to be a great deal of contact. Sherwood disagrees.
“You see his left leg absolutely clear out James with his follow through, that is a foul. Anywhere else on the pitch that’s a foul,” continued the former Tottenham Hotspurs manager, before claiming that VAR should have intervened.
“If the Leeds players surround the referee, then VAR 100% give a penalty.”
We’re not convinced. But it could easily fall into the category of “seen them given.”
A sliding doors moment for Leeds
The scoreline was still at 0-0 at the time of the incident in question. Had it gone the way Sherwood thinks it should have, it could have made for a very different game.
Leeds had started well and the greasy Anfield pitch was leading to some stray passes from those in red.
A goal would have put their tails up and potentially unnerved the home crowd on a night where Liverpool badly needed the win.
But given the eventual result, it’s unlikely that an early goal conceded would have stopped the Liverpool charge.
The Reds fell behind in their last game against Norwich City and managed to turn that one around in the last 25 minutes.
With the James incident occurring inside the opening 15 minutes last night, you’d have backed Jurgen Klopp’s team to have recovered anyway.
As it was, The Reds ran away with tie. Although three late goals added gloss to the scoreline, in the end the win was just as dominant as it looked.
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