Former Tottenham and England midfielder Jermaine Jenas has claimed that Southampton should’ve been given a penalty against Liverpool.
The Saints lost 4-0 to the Reds at Anfield on Saturday, but Jenas believes that they should have had a chance to score from the spot when the score was still 0-0.
All four of Liverpool’s goals came in the second half, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jordan Henderson and Mo Salah (2) putting Southampton to the sword.
However, there was an incident just moments before Oxlade-Chamberlain’s opener in which Southampton could have been awarded a penalty. Shortly after the restart for the second half, Danny Ings stumbled his way into the box and appeared to be taken down by Liverpool midfielder Fabinho, only for the referee to wave away the appeals.
VAR did not intervene to overrule the decision and there was not a message displayed on the screen to suggest that it was even looked at back at Stockley Park.
Speaking on BT Sports Score, Jenas said this about the potential penalty:
I feel like it should have been (a penalty) yeah.
Yes, there is a part of the ball that is won by Fabinho, but the ball still kinda goes through into the 18-yard box. As it does, he just flicks out his right foot – Fabinho – and I’m pretty sure he clips Ings in doing so.
Former Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood backed Jenas by adding:
It’s nailed on. Why would Danny Ings hit the floor? He’s inside the penalty area. He (Fabinho) sticks out his leg and he kicks him. It’s a penalty.
They go up the other end, rub salt in the wounds, Oxlade-Chamberlain scores.
READ SOUTHAMPTON VERDICT
Fabinho does seemingly stab at a part of the ball in his first attempt at tackling Ings, so that phase of the play should just be ignored completely – as there is no foul there. However, it is what happens next that is the controversial part. After the initial tackle from Fabinho, the ball breaks into the box and Ings goes to sprint past the midfielder – who reacts by kicking his leg out and clipping the latter’s ankles to bring him to the floor.
Had Ings stayed on his feet, he could have been in on goal with a chance of putting Southampton 1-0 up, which is why it would be strange for him to go down without contact. Fabinho’s touch is hard for the referee to spot, given the angles involved and the speed at which it happened, so I can understand why he did not give the decision.
However, I cannot understand why VAR has not gone back and awarded Southampton a penalty, due to the reasons stated above by Jenas and Sherwood – as Fabinho upends Ings inside the box.
If Southampton were awarded a penalty and scored from the spot, it could have been a completely different game. Instead, Liverpool were the side able to go 1-0 up and then slipped into cruise control for the rest of the match.
