13 October 2023 , 07:58
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Liverpool and England star Trent Alexander-Arnold got the last laugh after James Maddison's jibe about him calling for a replay after the Reds' Premier League loss to Maddison's Tottenham team.
Alexander-Arnold made his comeback from injury as nine-man Liverpool suffered a last-gasp defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. However, the hosts' late winner was later overshadowed by the VAR error which saw Luis Diaz's goal wrongly disallowed for offside.
Reds manager Jurgen Klopp raised the prospect of a replay after the error came to light, prompting Maddison to take a shot at his team-mate while away on England duty. Alexander-Arnold quickly fired back, though, giving Maddison a taste of his own medicine.
"Still asking for a replay," Maddison wrote on social media alongside a photo of him and Alexander-Arnold ahead of England's friendly with Australia. The Liverpool star was asked about it by Channel 4, though, and set the record straight.
"Nah," Alexander-Arnold said when asked whether Maddison's caption was accurate. "No, he was asking me to teach him how to put a free-kick in the top corner.
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"But, I told him, I'd just shown him the video when I scored at Leicester last year and they got relegated." Maddison was part of that Leicester team relegated two weeks after their defeat to Liverpool, completing a move to Spurs after his former club dropped down to the second tier.
Who should be on free-kicks for England? Have your say in the comments section
Trent Alexander-Arnold helped Liverpool beat James Maddison's Leicester last season (PETER POWELL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)The VAR controversy in Tottenham v Liverpool was addressed further by PGMOL chief Howard Webb on Monday, during the latest broadcast of Match Officials: Mic'd Up. Former referee Webb indicated measures have been put in place to avoid a repeat of the blunder, whereby VAR official Darren England appeared to misinterpret the on-field decision as onside rather than offside.
"We know human error can happen in all walks of life but we have to put things in place to ensure it doesn't have a significant impact like this," Webb said. "This brought into focus the need to reiterate the communication protocols that are really valuable.
We want the on-field officials to clearly tell the VAR what the decision is and the VAR to go back to the referee to check they have heard it correctly. "The VAR goes through the process of checking the decision, speaking to the assistant VAR before communicating to the field, to say what their intended decision is.
"Then, not just saying 'check complete', instead saying 'check complete, decision offside', which can be another trigger. We have put a lot of steps in place to ensure this error doesn't happen again."