Thomas Frank fumes at VAR’s ‘biggest mistake’ during Tottenham’s defeat to Liverpool | OneFootball

Thomas Frank was furious that Hugo Ekitike was not penalised for pushing Tottenham captain Cristian Romero as the striker doubled Liverpool’s lead in a chaotic 2-1 defeat to the Premier League champions.

Spurs finished down to nine players after two red cards - with Xavi Simons and Romero sent off - but Frank pointed to Ekitike’s goal in the 66th minute as the “biggest mistake” the officials made during the clash at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

“I think the second goal is a mistake from the ref,” Frank said. “I think there's two clear hands on the back. I don't understand it, how you can do that. Everywhere else we've seen that, 1000 times out there on the pitch, someone will go up on a header, a goal kick into the centre-back, two hands in the back, and boom, foul, but apparently not the penalty box.

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Frank was furious with Liverpool’s second goal (REUTERS)

“I think that was the biggest mistake, in my opinion, and from VAR. But apparently it was not enough.”

Romero was booked for his protests, with the Tottenham captain sent off in stoppage time for kicking out at Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate.

Tottenham played for over an hour down to 10 men after Simons was sent off for catching Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk on the calf with his studs.

“I don't like this as a red card,” Frank said. “I think the game is probably too big to take on, but for me it's not reckless, it's not he’s coming with exceptional force.

“He’s chasing Van Dijk. He's he's trying to put pressure and then he changed direction and then unfortunately his foot is on his Achilles.

“You could say, you need to be smarter, don't do it and all that, but so we're not allowed to have physical contact anymore?

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(REUTERS)

“So that’s the next thing. How can you get a three-game ban on something that's not reckless? That's absolutely wrong.”

Arne Slot agreed with Frank’s assessment that he had seen challenges like Simons’s not given as a red card.

“I don't think he had any intention to do it,” Slot said. “But if you see it back, where he touches him from behind, the height, I think it was calf, Achilles.

”There have been a few times in games when other teams made fouls like that against us and it didn't lead to a red card.

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(Getty Images)

”This time it did. I think I've seen multiple times that these fouls are a red card, but I've seen this season a few times when other teams made the same fouls against us that it wasn't, so.”

Ekitike, for his part, did not think he fouled Romero. "It's part of the game,” Ekitike said “He is a defender, I'm a striker. I judged the cross better than he did and I took the ball. That is why I scored. That is his opinion, my opinion is that it was a great cross, a lucky header, but I did the right thing.”