Arne Slot offered a somewhat cryptic response when asked if he was surprised Fulham‘s Issa Diop avoided a red card at Anfield, but we can read between the lines.
Within the first 17 minutes at Anfield, Andy Robertson was sent off, Fulham took the lead and were lucky to have 11 men on the pitch after two red card-worthy challenges.
Within 90 seconds, Diop had Robertson clutching at his knee after raking his studs on the left-back before Andreas Pereira did the same to Ryan Gravenberch‘s ankle prior to scoring.
Instead, it was Liverpool who went down to 10 men after referee Tony Harrington showed a straight red card to the left-back for denying a goalscoring opportunity.
Asked in his post-match press conference if he was surprised Diop’s challenge was only worth a yellow, Slot said: “If I looked back at the whole 100 minutes I saw, I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t give a red card.”
After a long pause and some laughter, Slot added: “It’s up to you how you want to read this comment!”
Think we are all on the same page there, Arne!
He added: “It was judged by VAR. I didn’t even see it because someone was stood in front of me.
“I was like, ‘why is he on the ground?’ And then people told me he got quite a hard knock. But yeah, referee gave a yellow and VAR didn’t change it, it can happen.”
Slot, who will now serve a one-match touchline ban against Southampton in midweek after reaching the threshold for three yellow cards, did acknowledge Robertson’s dismissal was deserved.
He did, however, note that Diop’s challenge compromised Robertson, saying: “Nothing to blame on him, [it was] character that he wanted to continue because he got quite a hard knock on his knee with two studs.
“Unfortunately, it led to a red card that was a deserved red card.”
Harrington had little to no control of the frantic draw at Anfield, and Virgil van Dijk even commented that he felt the referee was “nervous” having failed to invite any dialogue.
“We felt it a little bit (that the referee was nervous), but together with Robertson we couldn’t properly communicate with him, I felt,” the captain said of the Scot’s red card incident.
“It is what it is. We can’t put the blame on the referee, but it’s also part of the game.”
