Liverpool boss Arne Slot admits he was left angry after their 2-1 home defeat to Manchester City on Sunday night.
The Reds took the lead through Dominik Szoboszlai before Bernardo Silva drew City level and Erling Haaland converted an injury-time penalty winner.
Slot remarked afterwards: “Yeah, a feeling of anger, a feeling of disappointment, of course. First half, City were the better team on the pitch without creating that many big chances, except for the one from Haaland in the first minute.
But they played more easily with the ball. But the improvement we have made since three or four months ago, I think, was visible to everyone.
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“Second half, our standards went up. Standards in terms of intensity. We were pressing them all over the place and that is the biggest improvement we have made in the last three or four months – that the whole team is now able at the highest level against a team that is probably one of the best teams, maybe the best team or one of the best teams in England in ball possession, to do so well off the ball is a big improvement. Fantastic second half, I was expecting more than being 1-0 up, but we weren’t, and then two goals conceded.”
Asked if City’s third goal, struck by Rayan Cherki, should’ve stood, instead of Szoboszlai being sent off in the final seconds, Slot was non-plussed.
“When you asked me, what do you think about the decision, I thought, what do you mean? Do you mean the disallowed goal at City, the header from us? Do you mean the penalty they got in the away game against us? Do you mean the clear red card on Mo Salah in the second half? Do you mean the penalty they got in the second half?
“Do you mean this decision? Only over two games – and the ones that follow Liverpool know how many decisions of this I can come up with in all the other games as well – only in these two games all the big decisions that could have gone in some situation to a 50-50 or some people say left, some people say right…
“I can live with the fact, although I don’t like it, that the referee follows the rulebook and Dominik makes a foul on Haaland in that last situation, which is a clear shirt-pull, and he was through to goal, so he would have scored. So that’s a red card. And I think the Sunderland manager is really happy that he gave the red card.
“So that’s the rulebook, and you follow the rulebook. And if you follow the rulebook and you have a clear shirt-pull from (Marc) Guehi on Mo Salah, who for eight years has been scoring that ball every single time – 100 out of 100 times he scores that goal, a bit exaggerated – and that is not a red card, then there is more of my frustration.
“But I can live with the red card for Dom. If you like football, you say, ‘Ah, leave it as it is, it’s a goal, it’s good for them, it’s good for everyone.’ But if you are the Sunderland manager, you prefer to see a red card. That’s the rule, and follow the rules is all we ask.”