Liverpool took the brunt of the refereeing decisions in their 2-2 home draw with Fulham on Saturday, and manager Arne Slot isn’t pleased.
The Reds were forced to play nearly the entire match a man down as left-back Andy Robertson was sent off after just 17 minutes for a last-man foul. They fought back from a deficit twice on goals by Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota to earn a hard-fought point.
Many refereeing decisions left Arne Slot and the rest of the Liverpool players frustrated, including the Robertson red as the referee had allowed play to continue for advantage all the way through when Raul Jimenez attempted a shot which missed the target, at which point he pulled the decision back to issue the card and award a free kick.
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Those frustrations were compounded on the fact that the Reds believed Fulham defender Issa Diop should have been issued a red card in the very first minute for a bad foul on Robertson. There were questions from both sides about how the referee should handle the situation, given the foul came after Robertson had already deemed to be offside.
In order to dance around his concerns and not be too direct, Slot had a cryptic message about the officiating after the match.
“If I looked back at the whole 100 minutes I saw, I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t give a red card,” Slot told reporters after the match. After a long pause and then a chuckle, he continued with a directive.
“It’s up to you how you want to read this comment.”
Slot confirmed that Diop’s studs-up challenge to Robertson’s thigh left him at less than full fitness, but he felt he could continue. Ultimately, it may have led to his last-man foul and eventual red card.
“Nothing to blame on him [Robertson], [it was his] character that he wanted to continue because he got quite a hard knock on his knee with two studs.”
Slot did not have issue with the decision to send Robertson off for what he admitted “was a deserved red card.”
The manager wasn’t the only Liverpool player who was concerned with the official’s performance. Reds’ captain Virgil van Dijk said that while he believed they “can’t put the blame on the referee,” he felt that official Tony Harrington “was a little bit nervous” during the match, and that players on both teams “couldn’t properly communicate with him.”
