Arne Slot exposes laughable refereeing inconsistency with unfiltered post-match verdict | OneFootball

Arne Slot has called out the inexplicable inconsistency of refereeing standards in the Premier League after Liverpool’s galling 3-0 defeat on Sunday.

Although the Reds were thoroughly outclassed by Manchester City, they had legitimate grievances over two first-half decisions in particular – a contentious penalty awarded for an apparent foul by Giorgi Mamardashvili, and a goal for Virgil van Dijk ruled out because Andy Robertson was offside and deemed to be interfering with play.

That was despite the Scottish left-back not impeding Gianluigi Donnarumma’s sight of the ball in any way, and even an ardent Man United cheerleader in Gary Neville was incredulous over the goal being disallowed.

Image via Sky Sports

Slot exposes laughable inconsistency from Kavanagh

Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, Slot pointed to the stoppage-time winner from John Stones against Wolves last season that Chris Kavanagh (today’s referee) allowed to stand despite Bernardo Silva being offside and clearly obstructing Jose Sa.

The Liverpool head coach stated: “I think it’s obvious and clear that the wrong decision has been made, at least in my opinion, because [Robertson] didn’t interfere at all with what the goalkeeper could do.

“Immediately after the game someone showed me the goal that the same referee allowed City against Wolves last season. It took the linesman 13 seconds to raise his flag to say it’s offside, so there was clearly communication.

“That could have influenced the game in a positive way for us because in the first half we were so poor.

“We would have been lucky going 1-0 down at half-time, let alone if it was 1-1 or 2-1 down. It has been an influential decision, which is not to say that we then would have had a result over here because you cannot predict how the second half would have gone.”

Image via Sky Sports

Explain that one please, Mr Kavanagh…

Slot’s answer was spot-on. He was honest enough to acknowledge that Liverpool fully deserved to lose, while not giving the officials a free pass over a shambolic decision which could potentially have altered the course of the game, as Van Dijk would’ve equalised had the goal stood.

How Kavanagh could deem that Silva wasn’t obstructing Sa at Molineux last year while penalising Robertson for his ‘interference’ on Donnarumma today is simply mind-boggling, and it’s that inconsistency which utterly infuriates football fans in this country.

PGMOL chief Howard Webb should be compelled to give a thorough explanation over it, and privately he won’t be thanking the officials at the Etihad Stadium this evening over some of the decisions which went against the Reds.

In addition, Mark Goldbridge rightly called out VAR Michael Oliver over the Mamardashvili/Doku penalty incident, which was far less severe than that the Belgian got away with on Alexis Mac Allister in March 2024.

Liverpool would probably have still lost today even if Van Dijk’s goal was given, such was the gulf between the two teams, but had that been allowed to stand and parity was restored, it might’ve altered the course of the match.

The Reds have to be unforgiving in analysing their own performance, but the officials certainly didn’t help either.