An expert lip reader has provided an interpretation as to what Arne Slot allegedly told Michael Oliver immediately after Liverpool’s 2-2 draw against Everton on Wednesday night.
A dramatic last-ever Merseyside derby at Goodison Park ended in chaotic scenes as Abdoulaye Doucoure goaded away fans at the final whistle, with Curtis Jones taking exception to the provocation and a mass brawl breaking out.
Both players were shown red cards after the fracas, as were the Reds’ head coach and his assistant Sipke Hulshoff as they remonstrated with the official just after full-time.
What is Slot alleged to have told Oliver?
As per Liverpool Echo, a two-word comment by Slot towards Oliver is understood to have prompted the 39-year-old to reach for his pocket and pull out the red card.
According to expert lip reader Jeremy Freeman, the Dutchman told the 39-year-old that he had a ‘great game’, a remark that the referee seemed to interpret as sarcasm – hence the punishment he doled out to the Reds’ head coach, who replied “Sure, you give me a red for that?… I will check it out for later…me and you, yeah?”.
At that point, Virgil van Dijk stepped in and spoke to the official, with the apparent belief that Slot’s vigorous handshake triggered the red card, rather than his appraisal of Oliver’s performance.
The Liverpool captain is alleged to have said: “Hey, Michael…that was not a pull [of your arm]… Michael… it isn’t personal”, before then pleading with his boss to ‘keep away’ from the situation.
If true, it’s an overreaction from Oliver
If Oliver pulled out a straight red card just because he thought Slot sarcastically said he had a ‘great game’, that was highly impetuous and unnecessary from the Northumberland whistler. If that was as severe as the Liverpool head coach’s words got, surely it warranted no more than a caution.
Of course we want to see referees and officials being treated with respect, given the incredibly difficult job that they do, but that doesn’t give them a right to consider themselves as untouchable or superior to everybody else involved in the game.
The 39-year-old was culpable of some poor decisions on the night, wrongly awarding the free kick from which Everton took the lead and then missing a clear foul on Ibrahima Konate in the lead-up to James Tarkowski’s stoppage-time equaliser.
Such errors will naturally come with constructive criticism of his performance, but some of the vicious personal abuse which has been directed towards Oliver online is completely out of order, and we strongly condemn such behaviour. The same goes for racist abuse which has sadly been aimed at Doucoure.
Yet again, the postmortem on a high-profile Premier League fixture has been dominated by questionable refereeing, and it’s only with a consistent raising of standards that public trust in the PGMOL and its officials will be improved.
I think players and Managers should have the right to criticize the Referees if they have made wrong decision . Referees dish out yellow/red cards man up when you’ve made a mistake Referees, players in some cases get yellow/red are not allowed to have there say on the pitch. We all make mistakes.
Certainly no one should receive death threats, but the failure of Oliver to rectify his many mistakes and continued failure to improve needs to be addressed. It’s about time for PGMOL oversight and actual referee penalties for poor officiating. Oliver was absolutely dreadful from beginning to finish, one of the most one-sided and poorly officiated matches since Oliver’s last time in charge of a derby at Goodison.
In actual fact, the only way this referee situation as a whole becomes better is by replacing Webb and quite a few of the refs, and definitely fixing the referee coaching situation with Lee Mason getting the sack as well. How Mason was ever allowed back into PGMOL is beyond understanding.
Oliver is allegedly, very cosy with the owners of Man City, whether this is starting to muddy the waters for him, i do not know, i do know that Arsenal fans believe Oliver’s trip to Saudi to ref a game for £20k is enough to have a think about it.
Refreeing he is not right.
It’s happening too often, Liverpool get incompetent referees making bad decisions. Oliver stopped the game everytime Liverpool players pushed someone, but let it go on in extra, extra added time when Konaté was was pushed. It does make you stop and think when these things happen if somevof these refs are working for other clubs ambitions
I don’t know what Slot said to Oliver, but he did very well. After such a scandalous performance, the minimum is that someone sends this judge to hell!
There has got to be a way that a club can refuse to play under a referee they deem bias .until that happens refs will keep getting away with it until a vdo or something is leaked like coote
That Michael Oliver should never be allowed to referee his favourite Man City and definitely not Liverpool fc or Arsenal every again. He totally lost control of the Liverpool v Everton game and made some very bad decisions towards Liverpool fc. If getting a red card for a hand shake is bad what is Jones looking at for getting jumped by 3 Everton players. Jones was just sticking up for his supporters from Evertons player giving them the middle finger,they were gourding the Liverpool players and supporters all through the goals they scored. Then there’s the time added on 5 extra minutes the so called officials said and the score at 90+ 8or9 minutes that’s a stitch up by the ref Micheal Oliver him self. He’s never had a good word to say to or about Liverpool fc or Arsenal.,he needs to stay as far away as possible from Liverpool and Arsenal.
He needs to be kept away from ALL football matches. He’s likely to hand out a red to anyone he takes a dislike to. He’s a liability for any team he happens to dislike on any particular match.
Oliver refereeing was to put it mildly disgraceful and needs to be addressed by PGMOL or they have no credibility. The scenes at the end – well Curtis Jones was stupid in his reactions/he is needed more on the pitch than off – so to pick up red cards after he game is finished is pure and utter lunacy! Slot well the juries out on that one/Oliver may well be at fault in his reactions to Slot (similar to his officiating in the game, over penalising LFC and under penalising Everton – but hey he Oliver evened the game up/maybe that was what Oliver/PGMOL/& FAPL wanted) – from what I read the Premier League is controlled by a corporate body of clubs of whom the current chief executive is Alison Brittain….it is high past time a regulatory body was set up to oversee PGMOL and their whole structure in respect to selecting the top referees to officiate Premier League matches because it is definitely the case that that this multi billion dollar enterprise is being let down from a professional standards viewpoint by less than suitable officiating referees, this can only bring the game and marketing of Premier League games into ongoing disrepute – multi millions of dollars are spent by clubs to be able to compete/only to see their efforts undermined by less than capable referees officiating – from the outside looking in it seems to be a closed private club/that runs it’s own show as it seems fit – oblivious to the ramifications on the overall Premier League experience per se/this cannot and should not be allowed to continue as it is at the moment!
He should be put in another lower league for a few games that are less profile
So a old ref is saying he got it wrong, but isn’t it the job of VAR to pull him up on this and say it needs looking at or you got it wrong
It’s well past time that referees be scrutinised and imo, referees should be retired players who really know what’s what and have actually played the game at the highest level. Therefore, Premier league refs should be employed to officiate at matches that they have no allegiance. E.g. and ex Arsenal or Liverpool player can’t offiate at matches which involve clubs where they have played.
Oliver reffed game fairly just because Liverpool drew there up in arms they wouldn’t say a thing if the result was 2-1. So accept Everton performed better on the day