John Brooks has been appointed to referee Liverpool's Premier League clash with Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, with the Reds having notable history with the official
John Brooks has been selected to referee Liverpool's Premier League showdown with Tottenham this Saturday. The Reds have less than fond memories of Brooks, who gave Virgil van Dijk his marching orders during their game against Newcastle United at St James' Park in August 2023.
Van Dijk was shown the red card for denying his current teammate, Alexander Isak, a clear shot at goal. The Liverpool captain was slapped with an automatic one-match ban, which was followed by an additional suspension and a hefty £100,000 fine from the Football Association after he refused to leave the pitch and argued with Brooks and fourth official Craig Pawson.
Despite being a man down for over an hour, the Reds managed to clinch a 2-1 victory, thanks to Darwin Nunez who came off the bench to net two goals. In February, Brooks was removed from VAR duties for Liverpool's derby with Everton and Arsenal's face-off with Manchester City, following his contentious decision to disallow Brighton's goal in their 1‐1 draw with Crystal Palace.
Since then, Brooks has refereed four Liverpool matches, the most recent being the 2-1 Premier League triumph over Chelsea in October 2024, a match in which Slot questioned several decisions made by Brooks. For the upcoming game against Tottenham, Anthony Taylor will serve as the fourth official, while Stuart Attwell will be on Video Assistant Referee (VAR) duty,
Just last month, Attwell faced backlash for a significant decision in Liverpool's 2-0 victory over Aston Villa. Amadou Onana escaped a red card after he seemed to grab Alexis Mac Allister by the throat as Villa were setting up to take a corner.
"The fact they were pushing and shoving each other and all right, he's raised his arm, probably a bit higher than he wanted, but he's pushing," said former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher on Sky Sports ' Ref Watch programme afterwards.
"Stuart's [Attwell] got to decide, is it violent? Is it an act of brutality? He said: 'No,' he's obviously relayed to the VAR what he's seen, VAR has checked it back. The referee said, yellow card only."
Previously, during the League Cup semi-final first leg at Tottenham in January 2022, Attwell frustrated the Liverpool camp after declining to send off Lucas Bergvall, just moments before the player netted the winning goal. The 18-year-old received a booking midway through the second half following a late tackle on Luis Diaz.
He then avoided a second yellow card shortly before scoring after diving in on Kostas Tsimikas. Saturday is another crucial match for Liverpool in north London, with Slot's squad targeting consecutive wins following recent stalemates against Sunderland and Leeds United.
Spurs, on the other hand, suffered a 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest last Sunday and have now recorded six victories and six losses each in the Premier League.