Jurgen Klopp after Alexis Mac Allister sent off in Liverpool home debut: 'Harsher challenges' not punished

Jurgen Klopp believes that harsher challenges have gone unpunished after Alexis Mac Allister got sent off in Liverpool's 3-1 Premier League win against Bournemouth at Anfield.

Liverpool went a goal down three minutes after kick-off from an Antoine Semenyo goal assisted by Dominic Solanke, but the home side managed to equalise through Luis Diaz and go 2-1 up after Mohamed Salah scored a penalty rebound, which was initially saved by his former Fiorentina team-mate Neto.

Around the hour mark, Mac Allister received a straight red card from referee Thomas Bramall, for a foul on Ryan Christie. VAR official Paul Tierney did not call Bramall to take a second look at the tackle via the VAR monitor.

"I saw the red card back and for sure we have to talk about it," Klopp told Sky Sports after the match.

"I understand 100% how it looks for a ref in that moment, but when you see it back, it is the inside of the foot and no power behind it. It is not ruthless, it is just a mis-hit of the ball and then a slight hit to the shin of the other player. We saw harsher challenges which were not a red card, and this shouldn't have been.

"I don't know exactly what we have to do, but we should talk about it again."

Shortly after the sending off, 10-men Liverpool managed a third goal courtesy of Diogo Jota, and the home side saw out their first three points of the season.

"Horrible start. Horrible start to the game," Klopp said on the early goal.

"We needed a few minutes to shake it off and then we were really good. We scored two goals which was really good. The second- half changed completely because all of a sudden we were 10 men but scored the third goal, which is very important. It gave us energy.

"It should not happen, and we will speak about it and hopefully not do it again [the poor start]. It gave the opposition a massive boost, and they started super front-footed. When we found our way into the game we played in areas we had to play and we were calm, which is good. I said after the Chelsea match, after we conceded, I saw us [rushing]. I did not see that today. We found our way back into it and played the game we wanted."

Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola told the BBC that he also did not think Mac Allister's sending off was warranted, saying: "I don’t know. In real life, it did not look like a red card.”

He also gave his thoughts on the penalty his side conceded, saying: "We were doing pretty well and then the penalty came. It is soft. There is contact but it is a soft, soft contact. It was not an easy game to referee. If there is contact normally, they don’t ask for second opinions. It was quite clear.

"I think we had quite a lot of chances. We scored one, had one disallowed and at the end we had three or four clear chances and should have scored."

Dominik Szoboszlai, who, alongside Mac Allister and Wataru Endo, was making his Anfield debut said: "I am feeling tired but really happy that I could make the first home game in front of the fans. The win is most important, and now we are looking forward to the next game.

"The reaction after losing a goal was unbelievable. We had no stress, we were calm on the ball and in front of the goal. We changed some things and it worked.

"Sometimes we start strong, sometimes we start like this. The best thing was the reaction from the whole team. Some of us made some mistakes, but the reaction was unbelievable. We scored a quick goal and scored again. And also the red card and after the reaction was also really good. We are looking forward.

"We are there for each other and if somebody gets sent off then we change some of the things and I go back as a six. I cannot go forward as much, even the manager was screaming at me sometimes because I forgot. We fight for each other, and we even scored after the red card.

"Of course we will improve with time. We have a new team, new player and new system. We will be even better with time."

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