Jurgen Klopp hates the offside law changes, as well as handball
Jurgen Klopp is the latest manager to issue his dissatisfaction towards the handball regulations introduced in the Premier League this season, and also criticised the latest offside changes.
The handball rule has exploded in controversy in England, as the regulations regarding the natural silhouette of a player, which have been in use in Europe's other major leagues for the past two seasons, have been enforced in full.
For offside, meanwhile, assistant referees have been instructed to keep their flags down and let attacks play out so that if there is a tight decision, VAR can retrospectively check whether the goal is legal or not.
But it has led to many passages of play which didn't actually take place as the assistant will then flag when the ball is dead, which has been a source of frustration for fans and players alike.
The changes implemented by IFAB are likely here to stay, but Klopp specifically referenced the Eric Dier handball that handed Newcastle a point against Tottenham on Sunday as a handball he didn't agree with.
He said on Sky Sports following his side's convincing 3-1 win over Arsenal: "We all agree that Eric Dier didn’t do anything wrong. In the end, it was a penalty. If you can’t see it, you can’t really control your body in that moment, it’s just not possible.
"Try to jump in a situation like this, and behind you is a player, so the only opportunity is to cut arms off, so you can’t even keep them in your back, that’s not possible."
"In the same way, I’m not happy with how long we wait for offside decisions. I always have a heart attack because I can’t see all of them, 100%, it just looks constantly offside and yet, the flag comes.
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"If the opponent wins a corner in that situation, we don’t take it back; if you’re offside when you get a corner.
"These situations are really strange. Some rule changes, and some other things we changed didn’t work so far, but in the moment we have to accept it and that’s what we do.”
There have been 20 penalties awarded so far in this Premier League season, in just three rounds of matches.