Ex Liverpool star brands Mike Dean ‘disrespectful’ for VAR spat

Ex Liverpool star Stephen Warnock labelled former Premier League referee Mike Dean as 'disrespectful' as the fallout from the meeting between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur earlier this month continues.

Both clubs were in action last weekend, with the Reds drawing against Brighton and Spurs beating Luton Town, but coverage and punditry remain hung up on the VAR debate.

During the match between Jurgen Klopp's side and the league leaders, Luis Diaz saw a first-half goal wrongly chalked off for offside. The PGMOL were forced to accept 'serious human error' and an embarrassing audio clip showing the breakdown in communication was made public.

Many pundits and former football stars have called on VAR chiefs to make steps towards allowing ex-footballers into the booth to help get decisions right going forward, citing their knowledge of the game as something that may make a difference.

Working as a pundit on Sky Sports, Mike Dean gave his opinion on that suggestion at the weekend and questioned whether ex-footballers had a strong enough grasp of the rules to benefit the process. He said: "The way forward, do you get ex-players in? For me no because I just don't think, if you go get players in, half of them don't know the laws of the game full stop as you can tell by what you [Merson] said about restarting games for the sake of it."

Shortly before this, ex-Aston Villa man Paul Merson had criticised referees' fear of getting in trouble and was adamant that those in charge of VAR at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium should have simply pulled the match back. As Merson lost his rag, Dean replied: "It's the law, mate. That is the law. You can't change the law. Simple as. I am staying nice and calm because I know you cannot change the law, but if he wants to blow up like a bottle of pop that is fine by me."

Now former Reds defender Stephen Warnock has entered the debate, siding with Merson as he criticised Dean. The star, who made 67 appearances for his boyhood club, said: "I'm all for it [involing pros]. I think Mike Dean is being disrespectful with his comments about not knowing the laws of the game. You can learn it very quickly, you can understand it.

"We've learnt a lot in the time we've worked with Dermot. We continue to learn and hopefully, we understand it a lot more than people actually think. I think it's a good thing. If people talk about peoples' allegiances to clubs, bring people in from Holland, France, wherever it might be and they don't have that allegiance to clubs."