Simon Hooper's record vs Liverpool including match Jurgen Klopp wanted replayed
Liverpool will have Arne Slot in the dugout for their weekend clash against Wolves who'll see a familiar face taking charge of the match
Simon Hooper will take charge of Liverpool's clash against Wolves - over a year since Jurgen Klopp demanded a replay of their infamous match against Tottenham Hotspur. The 42-year-old has taken charge of 12 matches involving the Premier League leaders in his officiating career.
Liverpool have won seven, drawn three and lost two of those particular matches. The last fixture he took charge of was their 2-1 win over Southampton in the EFL Cup quarter-finals in December , hile the most recent league game he officiated in involving Liverpool was their 1-0 win away to Crystal Palace last October.
Sunday's home game against struggling Wolves will be the third game this season Hooper has reffed with Liverpool taking part. He has handed out 17 yellow cards and two reds in the 12 matches he's commanded against Liverpool, with both red cards coming in the 2-1 loss to Spurs last season.
Hooper certainly didn't endear himself to the Liverpool faithful after the role he played in Luis Diaz's goal being disallowed, before the Anfield side went down to nine men after Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota were given their marching orders.
The Colombia international was flagged offside after scoring despite replays showing he was in-fact onside. However, Darren England, the VAR, thought the on-field decision was to award Liverpool the goal as he told Hooper that the check was complete.
It was moments after when England and the assistant VAR Dan Cook realised their error when watching the replay that the goal wasn't given. Despite the mistake, they said that they couldn't intervene due to the game having already restarted.
Klopp - who watched his side concede a 96th-minute own goal via Joel Matip to lose the game - called for the match to be replayed after full time.
"It's really important that as big as football is and important as football is we deal with it in a proper way," the German said.
"All the people involved, the on-field referee, linesman, fourth official and especially in this case VAR, didn't do that on purpose. It was an obvious mistake and I think there would have been solutions for it afterwards.
"Some people probably don't want me to say, but not as the manager of Liverpool so much, more as a football person, the only outcome should be a replay. That's how it is. It probably will not happen."
Liverpool - who'll have Slot in the dugout despite his sending off in the Merseyside derby - will hope to get back to winning ways on Sunday after their midweek 2-2 draw against Everton, with James Tarkowski rescuing a point for the Toffees with a 98th-minute equaliser.
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