Referee Chris Kavanagh sent Maxence Lacroix off during Crystal Palace’s defeat to Man Utd.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot has demanded the Premier League clear up inconsistencies in key decisions after comparing Maxence Lacroix’s red card to Marc Guehi’s shirt-pulling of Mohamed Salah in last month’s defeat. Crystal Palace defender Lacroix was given his marching orders after conceding a penalty, which inspired United’s fightback to a 2-1 win on Sunday.
Slot weighed in on the debate in his press conference on Monday after some questioned Chris Kavanagh’s decision to award a penalty and a red card, including Gary Lineker who branded the sending off ‘harsh’. The Liverpool boss brought up the incident with Guehi from earlier in the season, which went unpunished, as he highlighted the inconsistency from referees and VAR.
With Liverpool and Man City level during last month’s match, Salah was pulled back by Guehi when he was through on goal, with the England international shown a yellow card and a free kick awarded, as VAR agreed with the on-field decision.
However, in the United game, VAR intervened to say Lacroix should be sent off, with Kavanagh not brandishing a card. Slot felt that both decisions were worthy of red cards – and insisted the Premier League need to hold up their hands if mistakes are made.
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Speaking at his press conference this afternoon, Slot said: “Very comparable. The only difference is Mo was pulled by the shirt and there was hand on the shoulder.
“If I look at it, I see a similar distance. Maybe even the distance between Guehi and Dias was a bigger distance than between both centre-backs of Palace.
“The moment I saw it, knowing what has happened with us in that situation, VAR is probably checking if it’s even a penalty, or if it’s inside or outside the box, but he will never give a red card for it.
“This is sometimes what I hold against VAR because every time when the Premier League comes in, they say there’s only two wrong decisions for the whole season, but in both situations, you’re expecting VAR interference.
“Nine out of ten times in football, there’s a difference between ‘the referee has given a red card and I stay away from it and accept his decision’ or ‘the referee hasn’t given a red card, I stay away from it because I accept his decision’.
“But in both situations, the referee did not give a red card and in one situation, he overturned the two red cards.
“For me, either one of the two is a mistake, so when you come in at the end of the season, you have to say ‘OK, we made more than only one or two mistakes’.
“But what they mean by mistake is if VAR overturned it in the wrong way. In that, I can expect two is already a lot.
“For me, this [Lacroix’s foul] was a red card. The one from Guehi was a red card as well, but I wasn’t backed up by everyone.
“The panel afterwards said it was the right decision, so we expect the panel now to say five times, wrong decision made by VAR and a referee.”
Lacroix’s red card proved to be the turning point in the game as Bruno Fernandes equalised from the sport before turning provider for Benjamin Sesko to score the winner in the 65th minute.
