Arn Slott’s struggling Liverpool side have now lost four games after Manchester United took the lead with a controversial goal but won at Anfield.
Liverpool manager Arn Slott refused to give his players an “excuse” despite manager Michael Oliver’s decision not to stop play with a head injury during the build-up to Manchester United’s opener during Manchester United’s dramatic 2-1 win at Anfield.
Brian Mbeumo’s goal gave United an unexpected lead within 63 seconds. However, Liverpool were furious that Oliver did not blow the whistle after Alexis Mac Allister went down with a blow to the back of the head in a collision with teammate Virgil van Dijk. Oliver did not appear to see the Liverpool star with his head on the turf and allowed play to continue.
The Premier League’s Match Center said Van Dijk had made contact with Mac Allister, so it was not considered a foul and VAR could not intervene. So it all depended on Oliver’s reading of the game.
After the match, Slott was asked for a verdict on both the goal and his penalty shout for a handball in the first half, which the referee waved off. However, as Liverpool suffered a fourth straight defeat, the Reds manager preferred to focus on his players’ poor performance.
“When you lose a soccer game, especially after losing four, maybe you should have some emotion during the game,” Slott replied. “But you shouldn’t talk about it in that moment. There’s no excuse.
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“We had plenty of chances to score when we didn’t need that penalty. Yes or no. I don’t want to talk about it. We had a lot of chances, so we need to score more. And if it’s 1-1 and the game is completely in our favor and we have to defend set-pieces, we have to defend them better than we did.”
“This is something we have to work on. And there are emotions in the game about decisions. Every manager has this. But I don’t talk about this.”
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Van Dijk said of the incident: “I think the ball went long. The first header was the United player, the second was me. My elbow hit the player, he fell down, I fell down too. It was difficult to score from that angle, but he scored. There was a lot of football left to play (and score), but we didn’t score.”
“We need to stay humble, keep working and keep our confidence as high as possible. It’s important to keep that mentality of being there for each other when the going gets tough. It’s a long season.”
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