Tottenham 1-2 Liverpool: Match Review
Liverpool will be without Alexander Isak for a prolonged period after he suffered a broken leg against Tottenham Hotspur.
Former Liverpool defender Steve Nicol believes that the tackle that broke Alexander Isak’s leg was not reckless.
Isak faces at least a couple of months on the sidelines after being forced off in last weekend’s 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur. The striker came off the bench at half-time and opened the scoring 10 minutes later.
However, after firing his shot, he was brought down by Spurs defender Micky van de Ven. Isak has had surgery for his fractured fibula, although Van de Ven went unpunished. Tottenham had both Xavi Simons and Cristian Romero given red cards during the game.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot believes that Van de Ven’s challenge was ‘reckless’. Slot said: “This was for me a reckless challenge. “I think I’ve said a lot about the tackle of Xavi Simons, which was for me completely unintentional, and I don’t think you will ever get an injury out of a tackle like that. The tackle of Van de Ven, I think if you make that tackle 10 times, I think 10 times there is a serious chance that a player gets a serious injury.”
Van de Ven has reached out to Isak and apologised. Tottenham head coach Thomas Frank has defended his player and insists that Van de Ven was doing everything he could to block Isak’s effort on goal. Frank said: “Put it this way, if my defender does not do that, they are not true defenders. Reckless challenge? I don’t think you see anything like that from Micky. He is very fair and I know the two players have sorted it out, so that’s a good sign.”
And Nicol, who won four league titles and the European Cup with Liverpool, has sided with Frank rather than Slot. Speaking on ESPN, Nicol said: “I don’t agree with him, to be honest. It’s a last-ditch tackle, we’ve seen it thousands of times. Occasionally, someone comes out on the wrong side. That is just what it is.
“We can’t start talking about the outcome and you have to start suspending people or fining people or whatever it is. You can’t start refereeing games afterwards on the outcome. If it’s a terrible challenge then retrospectively, the FA can look at it.
“But this challenge for me, we have seen it 100 times and unfortunately, 99 times it’s OK, everyone gets up and we get on with the game but unfortunately, that one time, someone gets injured. Unfortunately, for Isak, it’s him and a bad injury. There wasn’t a player on the field screaming a referee if there was such an egregious challenge.”
However, former Chelsea defender and World Cup winner Frank Leboeuf is of Slot’s persuasion. “I never said it was a reckless tackle, I said it was a desperate tackle,” said Leboeuf. “I’m pretty sure if Isak didn’t score, VAR would have given a penalty and a red card to Van de Ven. Van de Ven doesn’t touch the ball, I can bet it would have been a red card.”
Continue Reading