Gary Neville has criticized Liverpool’s move to issue a statement denouncing the VAR error in their loss to Tottenham on Saturday and thinks the wording is “dangerous.”

When Curtis Jones’ challenge resulted in a red card in the first half of their trip to north London, the Merseysiders were down to 10 men, but they believed they had grabbed the lead immediately after despite their numerical disadvantage.

Although the Colombian appeared to be onside, the linesman raised his flag after Luis Diaz ran clear and scored impressively. After a quick VAR review, the game resumed with a free kick to Spurs.

Although the on-field team understood the VAR team’s communication as Diaz being offside, it later emerged that the VAR team had mistakenly believed the on-field judgment had been a goal and that their use of the phrase “check complete” was to affirm there was no offside.

After the game resumed, VAR was unable to make a decision, and Son Heung-min gave Tottenham the lead shortly after.

Just before halftime, Cody Gakpo scored an equalizer. His replacement, Diogo Jota, was then dismissed for two bookable offenses, and Joel Matip scored an own goal with seconds remaining to give the home team a 2-1 victory.

After learning that a “significant human error” had occurred, Jurgen Klopp handled the situation diplomatically, but Liverpool issued a devastating statement on Sunday night calling for “escalation and resolution” and announcing that they would be “exploring a range of options.”

Neville, a former defender for Manchester United, thinks the “vague and aggressive” language in Liverpool’s statement went too far and that PGMOL’s subsequent apologies should be adequate.

Neville wrote on the social media site X: “Jurgen Klopp handled the situation last night after the game well.” The majority of football fans will have understood what happened and acknowledged it was wrong.

But Liverpool made a mistake with their statement tonight! Talk of sporting integrity and “exploring all options” are harmful ideas that are also evasive and combative.

Sorry enough, we screwed up! Last night, I stated this. Being sorry should be treasured and honored.

Although this is a rash judgment that could always be incorrect, I have strong feelings about it.

Neville also retweeted a number of tweets criticizing Liverpool’s statement as well as the use of VAR in general since its introduction.

In response to a Liverpool supporter’s suggestion that there should be consequences, Neville quipped, “What would that look like, mate?” It’s a total mess. We’ve all engaged in it.

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VAR chiefs face full trial as Liverpool push for answers on official’s UAE links

VAR chiefs are being held to account for their selection process.

Those within the Premier League are pushing for the PGMOL’s review into the failings of VAR during Saturday’s fixture between Liverpool and Tottenham to examine the appointment process of the officials.

Three of the officials appointed for the game – Michael Oliver, Darren England and Dan Cook – were involved in matches in the United Arab Emirates 48 hours before kick-off and there are now questions being raised about whether fatigue influenced the poor officiating standards.

VAR officials England and Cook made a “significant human error” when they failed to overturn Luis Diaz’s wrongly disallowed goal and have been relieved of their duties in Premier League games taking place on Sunday and Monday while the PGMOL look into their blunder.

The PGMOL have put the error down to a “momentary lapse of concentration”. This comes after England and Cook made a six-hour flight from the UAE the day before Tottenham vs Liverpool following their involvement in a UAE Pro League match between Al Ain and Sharjah on Thursday night.

They only had one day to recover and there are concerns this wasn’t long enough. Liverpool have since released a statement vowing to ‘explore the range of options avaliable’ to them and claim that the integrity of the sport was undermined after Diaz’s goal was chalked off.

“Liverpool Football Club acknowledges PGMOL’s admission of their failures last night. It is clear that the correct application of the laws of the game did not occur, resulting in sporting integrity being undermined,” the statement begins.

“We fully accept the pressures that match officials work under but these pressures are supposed to be alleviated, not exacerbated, by the existence and implementation of VAR.

“It is therefore unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not afforded to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention.

That such failings have already been categorised as ‘significant human error’ is also unacceptable. Any and all outcomes should be established only by the review and with full transparency.

“This is vital for the reliability of future decision-making as it applies to all clubs with learnings being used to make improvements to processes in order to ensure this kind of situation cannot occur again.

In the meantime, we will explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution.”