Alexis Mac Allister has admitted Liverpool deserved to taste defeat against Toulouse last night despite the ‘weird’ decision to rule out a late Reds equaliser.
Jarrell Quansah thought he had rescued the Merseysiders in second half stoppage time, only for Mac Allister to be adjudged to have handled the ball in the build-up to the goal following a VAR check and a visit to the pitch side monitor from referee Georgi Kabakov.
Jurgen Klopp’s side looked extremely disjointed right from the off against the Ligue 1 outfit but the Anfield outfit remain top of the group with two games remaining.
“The last 10 minutes we could have scored a couple of goals,” the midfielder told Liverpoolfc.com (via Liverpool Echo). “The last situation, it’s a weird one because the referee said goal and then 10 seconds later he changed the decision. I don’t know exactly how the rule is but it first hit my chest so it’s weird. But it’s not an excuse, we didn’t play well, as we know, and it’s a fair result.”
Discussing the reasons behind Liverpool’s disappointing performance, Mac Allister added: “Well, I don’t know exactly and we will have to analyse that, but we were not good enough defensively. We missed so many challenges and that cannot happen when we play with the high line.
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“We know we are in a good position, we are first and we will do our best in the next games to qualify as soon as possible. It was a tough one and we want to improve.”
Mac Allister started the game in a more advanced midfield position but was then deployed in a deep-lying role for the second half after Wataru Endo was replaced.
We all know the Argentine is a brilliant player but the creative side of his game is being restricted when he’s asked to play the defensive midfield role.
In regards to the decision to disallow our late equaliser, it felt extremely harsh.
The ‘handball’ incident happened quite a while before Quansah’s strike and it only struck our No. 10’s hand after deflecting off his chest.
It’s nice to see the ex-Brighton man speaking so honestly, accepting that we simply weren’t good enough on the night.
There’s no need to be too disappointed, however, three points against LASK next time out will secure our passage through to the knockout stages.
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