Wednesday night was frustrating in more ways than one for Arne Slot as Liverpool’s seven-match winning streak ended away to Newcastle.
The Reds were well below their best at St James’ Park but were on course for victory in the closing stages before Fabian Schar rescued a point for the home side in a rollercoaster 3-3 draw.
Aside from the concession of two points on a night when all of our title rivals won, no fewer than five LFC players were booked by Andy Madley, with Alexis Mac Allister’s yellow card ruling out of the Merseyside derby due to suspension.
Slot frustrated with Andy Madley
Speaking to the media afterwards, Slot couldn’t hide his annoyance at the readiness with which the referee reached into his pocket during the match.
The Liverpool head coach said (via liverpoolfc.com): “In the first half we had a lot of problems with their intensity, aggressive playing style without the ball – aggressive in a good way.
“We tried to cope with it, but every time we touched them we got a yellow, and that doesn’t really help for us to be intense then as well.”
Slot right to be annoyed at card-happy refereeing
The match at St James’ Park was by no means a dirty one, so for Madley to show seven yellow cards felt excessive, especially considering the nature of some of those.
Whilst there can be no complaints about the cautions for Jarell Quansah and Ryan Gravenberch for pullbacks on Newcastle players before half-time, Darwin Nunez was later booked for minor dissent, and the card shown to Mac Allister was an incredibly harsh way for him to be ruled out of the Everton game at the weekend.
According to Sofascore, the Argentine went into the book for persistent fouling, but three fouls over the course of 90 minutes doesn’t fall into that category, and the one which resulted in him being carded wasn’t exactly a scything challenge on Schar.
Only four teams have collected fewer yellow cards than Liverpool’s 31 in the Premier League this season, and unlike the Reds, three of those have had a player sent off (WhoScored), so the frequency with which Madley reached for his pocket last night certainly seemed over the top.
We can see why Slot was annoyed with the official at St James’ Park, especially regarding the costly caution for Mac Allister, but the Dutchman will also know that his team were culpable of too many mistakes against Newcastle and must look at themselves first when assessing why two points were dropped.
Newcastle are second only to Arsenal when it comes to players who are losing out in a one on one contest diving, the free kick that lead to the Scar goal was an out and out dive by the Newcastle player…but that said/where were Quansah and TAA when the aging 32 year old Schar galloped on to the ball at the back post to equlaise – TAA we know is deficient in defence but definitely a SLOT ERROR in playing those two together on the same side (Quansah is still a defender yet the finished article as he is prone to errors in judgement at vital times….and that being said what the hell was Kelleher doing letting the ball go over his head (he could have tapped it over the back lline for a corner) with seconds left on the clock and LFC in front and the 3 ponts thanks again to Salah in the bag…Poor lack in concentration by 3 defenders at the back to a;;ow the points to be dropped!!! YNWA.
I would blame Kelleher as most irresponsible to take the situation very unprofessionally. Kelleher looked as if sure that the ball will fly over the goal line harmlessly. When a team continuously plays well and wins the lackness in concentration happens. If it’s not so how one can explain of Kelleher’s action of letting the ball land in very vulnerable zone.