Will Kevin be a Friend of foe for Town?
HUDDERSFIELD Town will have Kevin Friend in charge when they travel to Liverpool tomorrow.
It’s a fourth Premier League match of the season for the Leicestershire official involving Town - and he issued a red card against a Terrier in the last one.
That was in the 2-0 defeat at Newcastle United when Tommy Smith received a straight sending-off for a challenge on Miguel Almiron.
Friend also refereed the 1-0 defeat at Fulham and Town’s 2-0 win against Wolves at Molineux back in November.
His appointment is also a fourth Liverpool match of the season.
Most notably the 47-year-old was the man in the middle as Liverpool were held by West Ham in February.
Following the 1-1 draw at the London Stadium, Jurgen Klopp claimed Mr Friend was influenced by Sadio Mane’s opening goal, as James Milner was clearly offside in the build-up.
Speaking to the BBC, Klopp said: “I heard our goal was offside, I’m pretty sure the ref knew that. In 50-50 situations it was always a free-kick for the other team, which was hard and did not make life easy.”
In a separate interview, with Sky Sports, the German coach told: “As a human being, if I know I have made a big mistake in the first half, I don’t want to open the gap any more.
“Referees are obviously human beings, and I understand that, but I didn’t during the game because I had no clue that our goal was offside.”
The Liverpool boss was later charged £45,000 by the Football Association for the statements which were deemed to have questioned the referee’s integrity.