Arne Slot manager / head coach of Liverpool speaks with Referee Tony Harrington
Arne Slot was unhappy with referee Tony Harrington during the Fulham draw
Arne Slot has admitted that he does try to influence referees in Liverpool’s favour after being handed a touchline ban.
Slot will watch Liverpool ’s Carabao Cup quarter-final against Southampton on Wednesday evening from the stands after picking up a third yellow card of the season. The Dutchman was booked after protesting against a yellow card for Curtis Jones in the 2-2 draw against Fulham on Saturday.
Liverpool were annoyed by referee Tony Harrington’s decision not to send off Issa Diop early on, while Andreas Perreira also escaped a dismissal for a poor challenge on Ryan Gravenberch. Slot is a more reserved character than his predecessor Jurgen Klopp but still shows plenty of passion while making his side’s case to the officials.
Ahead of the trip to St Mary’s to take on managerless Southampton, Slot spoke openly about his ethos. “You always reflect but I think, in general, I am calm,” he said when asked about his behaviour on the touchline.
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“I don’t know if it is smart to say this, but there is also a limit for me, let’s put it that way. And then I can get emotional and, unfortunately, that limit is only reached by refereeing decisions or the decisions my players make.
“They make more good decisions than the referees do in my opinion for my team! The Chelsea game was emotional. We should have had a second penalty but the VAR changed it, and there were a lot of controversial decisions being made.
“Then if you are down to 10 men that works out even harder [on you]. The Chelsea game and the Fulham game was emotional and maybe I should have stayed just underneath instead of going above.
Arne Slot, Manager of Liverpool, reacts
Arne Slot is a passionate figure on the touchline
“You try to influence as much as you can. The mistake I have made two times already here, and one or two times in Holland, is sometimes you think that creating an atmosphere that the whole world is against you can lead to some positive decisions at the end of the game.
“But here, until now, in the Chelsea game and the Fulham game for the whole 90 minutes it stayed the same. It wasn’t like after I tried to influence things a bit, the referee all of a sudden gave us one or two free kicks.
“No, he just kept the whole game the same. I know that it doesn’t work, but sometimes you think, ‘Can I influence that a bit?’ But it didn’t help at all.”
With Slot in the stands, he is expected to hand over his touchline duties to assistant Sipke Hulshoff for Wednesday’s match. Southampton, meanwhile, will be led by Simon Rusk after sacking Russell Martin in the wake of the 5-0 thrashing by Tottenham on Sunday.
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