Jurgen Klopp was left furious by Vincent Kompany on Thursday night, claiming the Manchester City defender’s lunge at Mo Salah could have finished the Egyptian’s season.
Kompany overstretched after John Stones misplaced a simple pass in midfield before the break, clattering into Salah as the Liverpool forward bore down on goal.
Klopp was left in no doubt that Anthony Taylor should have shown the City captain a red card, which would have changed the complexion of the titanic title fight.
‘I really like Vincent Kompany but how on Earth is that not a red card?’ Klopp asked. ‘He is last man and he goes in.
‘If he hits Mo more then he is out for the season. It is not easy for the ref and he may not see it how I see it.
‘I like him he is such a fantastic player, loved him when he was at Hamburg but a player makes a decision, goes to the ground. If Mo on his on his feet, we all know what happens.
‘Look, he is still a nice guy but with a really bad decision. If Mo can go through, come on, what happens then?
‘When we were here last year we got a red card and nobody thought about it. Sadio didn’t want to do that for a second but he hit him. Look at it and make your own opinion.’
Kompany said: ‘I thought it was a great challenge, was it not? I got the ball, a little bit of the man but it wasn't naughty. I didn't try to injure him. It was that or let him go through on goal.’
Klopp suggested Liverpool’s lack of title pedigree means they are still not confident of holding off City’s challenge after Pep Guardiola’s side reduced the gap to four points.
Liverpool are looking to win their first title since 1990 and, while the manager has ‘so much faith’ in his squad, he did admit City are more accustom to the pressure of the race.
‘If someone had told me after both games after Man City we were four points clear, I would have paid money for it,’ he added.
‘I didn’t think it would be possible. Football is like this. If we win this and are 10 points ahead and from that point win no games, then nothing happens.
‘If we would have won the title five times in the last 10 years, 100 percent, but we don’t have it. We never won it as a team so we want to finish the season as good as possible.
‘It is all fine for us. Not in the moment, it feels really bad, but it is only a moment. Then we have an opportunity to work on it.
‘It had wild moments, both teams a lot of respect for each other and we’ve played better games but we took the intensity.
‘I thought City had more situations where they controlled the game but we had some as well. At the end the post in or post out can make a massive difference. Today I witnessed that.
‘We had really big chances in the second half with no counter-attacks involved. Fantastic saves from Ederson. We lost - we have to take that, it is not really cool but it is one of the three results that could happen. It is the one we didn’t like.’
Liverpool’s players are refusing to give up their tag as favourites. Georginio Wijnaldum said: ‘I don't want to say it is a hammer blow.
‘You are always disappointed to lose a game, especially when you come back and create chances. We would have been happy if we had a draw.
‘We were unlucky with other chances not going in. One moment we didn't defend well and they scored.’
Klopp pointed out Guardiola’s champions opted to counter attack in front of their own fans and believed the Reds did enough to leave the Etihad Stadium with a result.
‘We had already more moments in the game but when we played football, we were a major threat for them, the chance for Sadio (Mane) was brilliant,’ the German said.
‘If you can overplay their counter-press then each team in the world struggles, even Man City. There were a lot of rusty moments because they all felt under football pressure.’