Jurgen Klopp made his feelings about Paul Tierney clear during his time at Liverpool, and rightly so, as no VAR made more mistakes last season.
“I have no problem with any of the judges, only you.”
Those were Klopp’s words to Tierney after the 2-2 draw at Tottenham in December 2021, with there having been a number of problems with the official before then.
It’s far from the last time they’ve crossed paths, with the Liverpool manager even banned from commenting on the referee after another clash with Spurs last year.
It was a rivalry that had become a joke and fate was tempted when Tierney was in charge for Klopp’s penultimate game as he sought to avoid a yellow card suspension for his Anfield farewell.
While this could be seen as harsh by the Germans, there is clear evidence why Tierney is one of the most frustrating officials in the Premier League.
According to ESPN, no official has made more VAR errors than the 43-year-old during the 2023/24 season, with his four equaled only by Stuart Attwell.
Tierney averaged an error every 7.75 games, with only Attwell (7.5 games), Darren England (5.5 games) and Tony Harrington (five games) slipping more frequently.
This included his failure to intervene for Alexis Mac Allister’s red card against Bournemouth, which was later overturned on appeal.
Interestingly, however, Tierney’s refereeing decisions have only been overturned by VAR twice, with Harrington (five reversals in 10 games) ending the season with the worst record.
Harrington, with an average of 0.6 subjective errors per game, is among the worst referees overall, behind only Attwell (0.71 per game) and Michael Salisbury (1.07 per game).
John Brooks (0.14 per game) and Simon Hooper (0.16 per game) who both questionably sent off Liverpool players last season were rated as making the fewest subjective errors.
Meanwhile, Liverpool were more affected by VAR decisions than any other club apart from Brighton last season, although they also saw more VAR errors than any other team.
