03 January 2023 , 08:53
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Brentford boss Thomas Frank took issue with Jurgen Klopp's claim that his side "stretch the rules" from set pieces.
The Bees secured a first win over Liverpool for more than 80 years as they recorded a 3-1 success against their lacklustre opponents. Brentford were good value for their three points, taking a 2-0 lead in at half-time before adding a third late on.
Liverpool struggled to cope with the west Londoners at set pieces, especially in the first-half. The Bees scored once from a corner whilst they also had two goals disallowed for offside. Frank maintained that the amount of officials means they would've spotted any infringements as he laughed off Klopp's criticism.
He told Sky Sports : "I guess we have some very, very good refs, I think there are four on the pitch, and then we have a VAR room. It has never been more difficult to score a goal. Two of our goals were disallowed today, I think neither of them were flagged as offside so in a game [without VAR] we probably would have got them.
"But I’m of course happy that he praised us and it’s a credit to the good work we do about our offensive set-pieces."
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Liverpool attempted to rally in the second-half - Darwin Nunez had a goal ruled out for offside before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain did pull one back. Bryan Mbuemo's late strike was also contentious, with the visitors adamant Ibrahima Konate was fouled in the build-up.
Klopp called for answers regarding their set pieces tactics and accused the officials of "hiding behind VAR" as his side slipped further away from the top four.
Liverpool struggled to cope with Brentford's set pieces (David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)He said: "I’m not sure you can really control it all the time because each corner is a massive threat. They stretch the rules in these moments with full body contact. There was only one offensive foul on a set-piece tonight which was whistled and that was against us, which is really funny. Holding is holding, and pushing is pushing.
"It was more the game they wanted than the one we wanted. They could dictate it because of how it got whistled. The two corners they scored with, one was offside and the other one, of course we don’t behave perfectly, but they stretch rules. They are really pushing, they are really holding. That’s obviously what you can do."
"The third goal I can really not respect. The ref thought it wasn’t a foul and then VAR hides behind the phrase 'clear and obvious'. The referee has to explain that, if anybody could ask him."