Richard Keys has questioned the decision to appoint Anthony Taylor and Paul Tierney as the officials for Liverpool’s game against Manchester City on Sunday.
Writing on Twitter, Keys claimed that ‘no Liverpool fan will be comfortable’ with the appointments.
Keys believes that the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) have created a potential issue by selecting two officials from Greater Manchester for the game.
A strange decision
As Keys points out, it certainly won’t escape the attention of many fans that the two key officials are from the Manchester area.
Perhaps more significantly though, is the history of poor decisions from Tierney in particular.
The 41-year-old, who hails from Wigan, was in charge when Liverpool were denied a blatant penalty against Tottenham Hotspur in December.
Tierney also failed to send off Harry Kane for a nasty looking tackle on Andy Robertson that day. That Robertson was then sent off himself only compounded the feeling that the referee had had a poor day.
It’s personal for Jurgen
Tierney’s decisions against Spurs even led Jurgen Klopp to ask if the referee had a personal problem with him.
“I really have no idea what his [Tierney’s] problem is with me. Honestly, I have no idea,” Klopp said to the press via The Evening Standard following the game.
That wasn’t quite the end of it, though. Two weeks later Tierney was once again set to referee Liverpool, this time as the VAR for The Reds trip to Chelsea.
However, the referee was pulled off duty at the last minute. The reason was given that Tierney was required to referee a different game (The Daily Star). But given that it came hot on the heels of his disastrous display at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Klopp’s comments, the inference was clear.
If that was the case then Keys’ question is a very valid one. Why put him back in for one of the biggest, if not the biggest game of the season.
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