Doesn’t really matter, it’s better that it’s portraited as a mistake with large consequences rather than just the points lost.
The one thing - the one thing - that could be said in defence of Ten Hag is the laughable and frankly bizarre decisions that went against us under his watch. Spurs away, Arsenal away and city home last year and obviously West Ham the other day (penalty decisions), very strange disallowed goals for 'subjective offsides' and the like, dodgy red cards for Casemiro and Bruno, letting other teams (i.e. Schar of Newcastle) get away with murder repeatedly.
Was he hard done by? Absolutely not, he was spoofing the job for nearly 2 years. But a symptom of his weak leadership was how easy it was for VAR and refs to turn the screw on us. Even if/when he spoke up against it, it just sounded like weak excuses, pleading for more time in a job he was clearly out of his depth to manage.
I dunno how you reverse this - I suppose a manager with more gravitas is harder to go against in this regard. Klopp threw his toys out of the pram repeatedly and it definitely worked for Liverpool, but then again Arteta follows the same tactic and it definitely isn't working for Arsenal.
Liverpool nearly marched to parliament after an offside decision against Spurs last year. All I'd like to see is a club official strike back in some way against the litany of crap decisions every once in a while.
Something like 'we believe that a referee receiving paid employment from associates of a rival club constitutes a conflict of interest and compromises their integrity to stay impartial, and we request that they be removed from officiating'.
I mean this is actually entirely reasonable