‘Complain too much’ – Maddison makes claim about Liverpool’s two red cards

James Maddison has said that Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota were both deservedly sent off by referee Simon Hooper.

Tottenham scored another late match-winner at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday to send the home fans into pandemonium.

The 2-1 win over Liverpool means that Spurs remain unbeaten in the Premier League and now sit just a point behind league leaders, Manchester City.

Understandably, there has been a lot said and written about some of the controversial refereeing decisions that were made in the game.

PMGOL themselves acknowledged that Luis Diaz’s first-half goal should not have stood and was incorrectly adjudged to be offside due to ‘a significant human error’.

Some pundits, such as Gary Neville, have argued that Jones did not deserve a sending-off as his foot slipped on top of the ball before he connected with Yves Bissouma (Sky Sports via Mirror).

Did Liverpool deserve two reds against Tottenham?

However, Maddison said that having seen both red card incidents on the big screen, both Jones and Joto were rightfully given their marching orders.

The Tottenham midfielder told Sky Sports (broadcast on 30/9 from 17:00): “Jota’s definitely was. The Curtis Jones one early on got shown on the big screen I think was a red card as well. I’m not sure Jurgen will complain too much about those too.”

As it happened, Klopp did complain about both red cards, insisting that Jones did not intend to hurt Bissouma and that Jota hardly touched Udogie for his first yellow card (ESPN).

Spurs Web Opinion

I can understand why Liverpool fans are upset as Jota’s first yellow card did seem soft. However, it is worth pointing out that the winger got away with a potential yellow card offence just minutes earlier and the referee was always going to hand him a booking the next time he fouled a player to stop a Spurs attack.