'The reason is' - Arne Slot gives immediate reaction to Liverpool vs Man Utd controversial moment
Liverpool suffered a fourth successive loss in all competitions but there was controversy around Bryan Mbeumo’s opening goal for Manchester United.
Arne Slot refused to blame the officiating after Liverpool were condemned to a fourth successive defeat.
The Reds fell to a 2-1 loss against bitter rivals Manchester United at Anfield. The Premier League champions again displayed their frailties and conceded after 63 seconds when Bryan Mbeumo netted. Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister had gone down after suffering a head injury beforehand but referee Michael Oliver did not stop play.
Then later in the first half, the Reds felt they should have had a penalty when Cody Gakpo’s cross struck the arm of Amad Diallo but Oliver did not feel that the United wing-back was in a natural position and VAR agreed.
While Gakpo levelled for Liverpool with 12 minutes remaining, United got themselves back in front when they exploited the Reds’ vulnerabilities from set-pieces, with Harry Maguire heading home to deliver the visitors their first win at Anfield since 2016.
On the opening goal with Mac Allister down, Liverpool boss Slot said that his player was not feigning an injury. But he insisted that the Reds, four points behind Arsenal in the Premier League table, created enough chances to have deliveree victory.
Slot said: “The main thing I should do now is not complain at these kind of things. At that moment, we could have done much better after Macca was on the floor, we should have done better but the health care of the players is something that is important and if a player needs four stitches, you would hope everyone understands he needed treatment.
“But we could have done better and that is not the reason we lost. The reason is we missed far too many chances to win a game of football. I’ve said it many times and hoping I’m not saying it to you but everyone understands a bit better that we are not a team, which I see a lot in football that goes to the floor pretending it is a head injury so they kill the counterattack. That is not who we are, we never go to the floor. We are a fair team so if a player of ours goes to the floor, you would hope everyone would say it is Liverpool, they don’t do these things but that is not an excuse for conceding the goal and losing this game.”