Liverpool picked up their first three points of the new campaign with a 3-1 defeat of Bournemouth at Anfield yesterday but it wasn’t quite plain sailing for Jurgen Klopp’s side.
The Reds fell behind early on after Antoine Semenyo fired home for the visitors following a mistake from Trent Alexander-Arnold but the hosts went in at half-time 2-1 up thanks to goals from Luis Diaz and Mo Salah.
Alexis Mac Allister, who was making his Anfield debut for Liverpool, was harshly sent off just before the hour mark meaning Klopp’s side were forced to play the final half an hour with ten men – a decision which left The Mirror’s David Maddock bemused.
“Honestly, the game has gone,” he wrote on his Twitter page. “How can that be a red card for Mac Allister… and how the hell has it not been overturned by VAR?
“Clearly going for the ball, contact is foot to foot because that’s the height the ball was. Truly ridiculous decision.”
Thankfully, Diogo Jota slammed home shortly after our No. 10 was dismissed and we held out to secure all three points.
The standard of officiating in the Premier League really is abysmal with questionable decisions being made week after week.
It’s therefore quite refreshing to see journalists calling out referees and VAR when they make clear errors such as the one involving Mac Allister yesterday.
It’ll be interesting to see whether Liverpool decide to appeal the decision – especially with us making the difficult trip to St. James’ Park next weekend.
Check Maddock’s tweet below via Twitter:
Honestly, the game has gone. How can that be a red card for Mac Allister…and how the hell has it not been overturned by VAR?
Clearly going for ball, contact is foot to foot because that's the height the ball was. Truly ridiculous decision.#LFC #LIVBOU
— David Maddock (@MaddockMirror) August 19, 2023
Don’t expect the card to be rescinded any time soon, officials and PL look after each other. Incompetence is accepted and covered up or ignored. We will see countless challenges like that with no red card, possibly not even a yellow, this season and we will not hear another thing about this scandalous joke of a decision.
I think the ref was getting his own back for the penalty decision. Szoboszlai dived. I’m a Liverpool fan but I don’t want to see our players diving. Refs will be on the lookout now for his theatrics. But no way was that a red card.