It’s fair to say that Liverpool fans at Anfield were far from pleased with one man in particular during the first half against Brighton this afternoon.
The teams were level at 1-1 going in at half-time, and while neither goal was controversial, a series of soft free kicks given against the home team had almost 60,000 Reds inside the stadium fuming at David Coote.
In the Liverpool Echo’s live matchday blog (14:53), it was noted that there were ‘huge boos’ for the official as the teams made their way off at half-time, with Ian Doyle adding: “It must be said the referee, though, is having an absolute shocker. [Jurgen] Klopp certainly won’t miss David Coote when he leaves Liverpool at the end of the season.”
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Liverpool fans won’t be surprised in the least to see the free kick count at half-time – 11 to Brighton, just four for the Reds (Sofascore), with the visitors getting a series of charitable fouls given in their favour.
Coote also saw fit to show Alexis Mac Allister a yellow card for a foul on Simon Adingra which was soft, to put it mildly, and there was also a penalty shout when Pervis Estupinan impeded Darwin Nunez in the box in the opening minutes at Anfield.
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Referees will always give debatable free kicks over the course of a match, but there was definitely a disproportionately high number of decisions called against the Reds which ranged from harsh to downright inexplicable.
As Doyle said during his half-time analysis, Klopp certainly won’t be sorry to see the back of some officials in the Premier League.