Liverpool manager Arne Slott slammed the match officials for a “wrong decision” during the team’s 3-0 loss to Manchester City.
The Reds had a terrible afternoon against the Etihad on Sunday, with Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku scoring to give Man City a comprehensive victory.
Liverpool were a little better after the break, but against Man City they put in an incompetent first-half performance and did too much of what they could.
The only good chance before the interval came when Virgil van Dijk headed into the net from a corner kick, but the goal was ruled out for offside after Andy Robertson was adjudged to have blocked Gianluigi Donnarumma’s line of sight.
Replays showed that Donnarumma had actually seen the ball clearly when Van Dijk touched it, but the goal was still disallowed.
Slott slammed the decision after the match, claiming it was “obvious” that “the wrong decision was made”.
“I think it’s clear and obvious that the wrong decision was made, at least in my opinion, because he (Robertson) didn’t interfere in any way with what the goalkeeper could do,” Slott told Sky Sports.
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“Right after the game, someone showed me the goal the same referee had conceded to City against Wolves last season (John Stones’ last-minute winner), and it took 13 seconds for the linesman to raise the flag for offside. So there was clearly some communication.”
“We were so bad in the first half that it might have had a positive impact on the game.
“We would have been lucky if we were down 1-0 at half-time, much less 1-1 or 2-1.
“So it was an influential decision, but you can’t predict what the second half is going to be, so I can’t say we would have gotten the result here then.”
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Meanwhile, manager Van Dijk deemed the 3-0 defeat a “huge blow” and chose to focus on Liverpool’s performance.
Van Dijk said: “In football, referees make important decisions and we have to deal with them on the pitch. There is no point in discussing this from my point of view. The reality is that we lost 3-0, which is a big blow.”
“It doesn’t matter what I say[about the goal]because everything I say will be in the media and the whole international break will be about my comments on that decision. I’m just focused on the fact that we lost. You can argue whether it should have been kept or not.”
“It was difficult in the first half, but they were much more comfortable on the ball and it was difficult for our players to put pressure on them. I don’t think there was much danger, but Doc played a good game and there were some difficult moments for Conor (Bradley) one-on-one. I don’t think we were in too much trouble, but we could have done better.”
“We had to dig deeper in the second half. We had more momentum in possession, but we didn’t press enough out.
“The important thing is to find consistency and continue. Now we go to the country and get fit and prepare for the big battles after that. We are not going to give up on anything. We go into November and we are ready for a long season and big battles.”
