Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has revealed how Europe’s law-makers are already considering tweaking the offside laws to end the video assistant referee controversies.
While the Premier League has been plagued by contentious calls, ruling out goals based on the tightest margins, coaches have already been consulted about possible solutions.
The Liverpool boss said UEFA talked about widening the margin of error at a recent elite coaches forum and the ideas were accepted, certainly by the Anfield boss.
“We had a manager meeting with UEFA and it was decided to make the line bigger (thicker). I would like that,” said Klopp.
“I don’t know who would decide that. That it doesn’t take so long until a decision would also be better.
“It came from UEFA. It was just bringing something up that could decrease the trouble around offside a little bit. In that moment, it’s the first time I heard about it and then you start thinking. I just thought it brought back the old offside rule – if in doubt, favour the attacker – which is football, how I learned.
“It didn’t happen too often but when you saw it in a game and it was like the big toe offside, no footballer would say, ‘You have to see that.’ It is not possible to see all these offside decisions with the human eye. So, how can we help the refs to make the right decision? If it is slightly offside he will still whistle if he sees it. We want to have clarification and right decisions. Offside we get that now, the only problem is it feels like half an hour until the toenail is offside.”
Klopp does not like the protocol in the Champions League where linesmen are told not to raise the flag for close calls, allowing play to continue until VAR stops an attack.
“At international level, that’s the main problem: they let pretty much everything run until the goalie and the striker nearly clash and then they flag. Wow,” said Klopp.
“In an intense season, that’s like 500 more extra sprints and always a potential accident, or hamstring injuries. There are a lot of things they can work on.”
Liverpool will look to continue their winning streak against Sheffield United on Thursday with Klopp warning there is still room for improvement from a team which has won 18 of its 19 Premier League matches this campaign.
“We have to work on performances,” said Klopp.
“We should not start lying to ourselves like everything is fine when it’s not because we have to make sure that we improve. We will do, 100 per cent.”
