Jurgen Klopp has compelling argument for Liverpool replay but one thing holds it back

Trent Alexander-Arnold confidently played a straight bat when asked about the ongoing controversy over THAT disallowed goal for Luis Diaz at Tottenham Hotspur.

“Decisions are decisions,” said the Liverpool vice-captain. “Sometimes they go for you, sometimes they go against you. There’s nothing we can do as players.”

Then Alexander-Arnold departed the stage and was replaced by Jurgen Klopp to ostensibly look ahead to Thursday’s Europa League group game at home to Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise.

And after his right-back had swatted away the potential hand grenade, so the Liverpool boss chose instead to swiftly detonate it himself.

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“I think the only outcome should be a replay,” said the Reds boss. “That’s how it is.”

In one brief sentence, Klopp left himself open to ridicule and derision from those who, having initially sympathised with Liverpool being on the wrong end of a dreadful aberration, are now unhappy the Reds want atonement for the error.

Liverpool are continuing to explore their legal options given the unprecedented nature of a situation for which no playbook has been written nor remedial measures in place to follow.

Let's go through it one more time. A group of officials employed in a remote location to ensure correct decisions are made in the stadium rightly awarded a goal, only for a miscommunication to lead the on-field referee to not give it. It was a breakdown in process applying a definitive fact, rather than debate over a subjective call. In English football, it simply hasn’t happened before.

Klopp, speaking in calm and considered tones, made the