Jurgen Klopp accused match officials of ‘hiding’ behind a VAR rule after watching Liverpool beat a stubborn Brighton side 2-0 at the Amex Stadium.

It was a routine win for the Premier League title contenders, but they were made to fight hard for the three points in a game where, for once, Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz’s goals were not the post-match headlines.

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Instead, the boss was left confused by a decision that allowed Brighton goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to remain on the pitch despite an ugly tackle on Diaz, as he nodded in Liverpool’s first-half opener.

The Seagulls glovesman rushed out of his goal to meet the Colombian, but in a mad leap swung his leg into the Reds star’s chest and hand into his face – not only failing to save Diaz’s shot but also leaving him in a heap on the turf.

It looked a certain sending off, or at least a yellow card, but Sanchez escaped punishment completely after a VAR check, with the officials at Stockley Park deeming that referee Mike Dean did not make a clear and obvious error by not showing a red.

But Klopp argues that Dean had not made a decision at all at the time, having been focussed on the goal, and was instead relying on VAR replays to decide whether or not a sending off was justified.

And he said the ‘clear and obvious’ rule is often the reason why decisions like this are missed in the Premier League, with the German calling for those guidelines to be scrapped as they allow referees to ‘hide in the corner’.

“I haven’t seen it back,” the Liverpool manager told talkSPORT after the game.

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“I had this discussion at the Premier League meeting with the referees [PGMOL] and we mentioned it there and it is clear.

“It’s a goal, that was a really quick situation. Mike Dean decided very quickly it was a goal, yes, so no offside decision between the linesman and him, but he didn’t make a decision about the red card.

“Maybe he thinks it could be, so let’s see what he’s seeing in the studio or office or wherever the [VAR] is sitting. But it’s like he was saying ‘eh, he didn’t make a decision so it’s no red card from Mike Dean, for me it’s not clear and obvious so no red card’.

“But that makes no sense because I don’t think Mike Dean actually made a decision on the pitch, so the decision should be made by the VAR, but then he says it’s not a clear and obvious error – it makes no sense.

“The problem here is very clear, it’s the ‘clear and obvious’ phrase. We need to get rid of that because it’s a hiding corner.

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“That’s why we have so many problems where everybody sees it, it was a red card.

“Too often we stand here and discuss these things. We could say ‘OK Mike Dean didn’t see it’ or whatever, but Mike Dean decided it was a goal, then it’s ‘let’s get help from another guy’, but the other guy doesn’t help because the ‘clear and obvious’ phrase hinders him and holds him back.”

His gripes about VAR aside, Klopp was happy with his team’s performance overall after a hard-fought victory against a Brighton side he holds a lot of admiration for.

And he’ll be glad to have now played Graham Potter’s team twice this season, admitting he does not enjoy going up against them.

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“I’m happy with the performance because I know it’s really, really difficult against Brighton, and you saw that,” the Liverpool boss added.

“I could be the biggest supporter of Graham Potter. I really like what he’s doing and I like watching him but I don’t like playing against him too much because it’s really tricky… but we are not too bad as well.

“It was a hectic game. We scored a wonderful goal and we could have scored more. A lot of things were really good. We scored the second goal and I really wish we controlled the game better, the chances they had then were definitely too big. We have to work on that.”