‘Ridiculous’—The Moment That Summed Up Liverpool’s Season

The Reds were beaten 3–2 by Manchester United in controversial circumstances.

Arne Slot could not believe his lack of luck. | Visionhaus/Getty Images

Liverpool manager Arne Slot admitted Sunday’s 3–2 defeat to Manchester United contained the two primary themes of the Reds’ season: refereeing controversy and a handful of “stupid” mistakes from his players.

United roared into an early two-goal lead, with their second strike coming with a dash of controversy as Benjamin Šeško appeared to handle the ball en route to bundling beyond Liverpool stopper Freddie Woodman.

Asked whether he felt the goal should have been chalked off for a handball, Slot gleefully took the chance to blast the decision, but he admitted his own team’s sloppy play was the only reason the controversial moment had the chance to arrive in the first place.

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Every World of Arne Slot’s Postgame Rant

Benjamin Šeško’s goal caused plenty of debate. | Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

“If it was a touch, which I think it is, because if you know a bit about ball sports, you know that if a ball has a certain curve and the curve changes, there must have been a contact,” Slot argued.

“But if it’s light then we should have a debate in football about whether that’s enough to disallow a goal. But the rule is if there was a touch then it should have been disallowed.

“I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone this season that if there’s a VAR intervention or if there’s something that could be left or could be right then the decision goes against us.

“That has been the whole season every single time this season. I remember Paris Saint-Germain at home, getting a penalty for a soft touch on [Alexis] Mac Allister but of course the VAR intervenes and says, ‘No, no, no, this is not a penalty.’ Then one week later when I see Paris Saint-Germain play against Bayern Munich and get that same soft touch but the penalty stays.

“I saw last week my goalkeeper on the floor with an injury and the referee doesn’t stop the game. I see a player of United off the pitch today and the referee stops the game when we try to play on.

“That has been our whole season. But the second goal we didn’t concede because of a handball, we conceded it because we lost the ball in a stupid position and we lost a few big moments afterwards in duels.

“We have to first look at ourselves, that is completely clear and obvious, but that decisions have gone every single game against us, that’s also completely clear and obvious.

“When we played United the first time this season, I had one of my players needing five stitches on the floor, and the referee didn’t stop the game and we conceded. This is a complete pattern over the whole season, but there is also a pattern that we concede ridiculous goals when we are the better team, one or two are switching off and then we concede a goal.

“That we have more influence on, so I should focus much more on that than on these referee decisions that go against us. It's clear that it’s the whole season the same.”

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Pressure Continues to Rise on Slot

Slot knows improvements are needed. | Visionhaus/Getty Images

The overwhelming message coming out of Anfield is that Slot’s position as manager is safe. Liverpool are determined not to overreact to one poor campaign and are keeping memories of last season’s Premier League title victory at the front of their minds.

That stance is thought to be firm, but it is not one shared unanimously across the fanbase. Falling to back-to-back defeats against United is hardly the way to win back unimpressed Liverpool supporters who have questioned whether Slot is capable of turning things around.

Thankfully for Slot, Liverpool’s spot in next season’s Champions League is almost guaranteed at this stage of the campaign—six points clear with three games left to play—but the Dutchman will quickly have to start working on a plan to fix the obvious flaws in his team this year.

Few will argue that Liverpool have been on the receiving end of a number of controversial decisions, but there will also be no fans disagreeing with Slot’s assessment that far too many on-field mistakes have plagued the campaign as well.

Slot has promised improvement next season, hopeful of avoiding forcing those above him into making an uncomfortable decision about his future.

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