Arne Slot and Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca were at odds over the influence of the Anfield crowd on the referee during Liverpool’s 2-1 win, which summed up John Brooks’ performance.
When both sets of supporters come away from a game with a negative view of the officiating performance, it generally isn’t a good sign.
While Liverpool can look back in bemusement at some of the decisions made with three points now safely secure, emotions on Sunday ran high and Slot picked up his first yellow card for the Reds.
After the match, both he and Chelsea‘s boss, Maresca, thought that referee John Brooks had been swayed by the noisy Anfield environment, though they argued different consequences as a result.
Speaking to Sky Sports, the Londoners’ manager said: “I didn’t see anything in terms of decisions from the referee.
“The only thing I can say that sometimes in this stadium some decisions are for the noise of the crowd.
“The only thing I can say is the referee is there to make decisions. Sometimes they are right, sometimes they are wrong. Sometimes it is because of the noise [of the crowd], but overall I think they did OK.”
This would suggest that he thought the protestations of Liverpool supporters helped sway his decision-making.
On the other hand, Slot made the much more salient point that referees acknowledge they might receive this criticism therefore, unconsciously or consciously, go against the grain and set a higher bar for Liverpool to have decisions go their way.
Slot said: “I don’t know if this is something they say in England but they said it at my former club which was also an impressive stadium (Feyenoord’s De Kuip).
“They always said, ‘Yeah, the referees are impressed by the crowd and that’s why you get the easy decisions in your favour’.
“But today showed that no matter how loud the fans were, the referee just wanted to show that he was able not to give the decisions he had to make. ”
Bias or substantiated?
While we are definitely biased in some way towards Liverpool, there is evidence that what Slot is saying about referees going against the Reds at Anfield is true.
For example, in the 2022/23 season Liverpool had to wait until April for their first Premier League penalty at Anfield.
During this run, they had more touches in the box than any side has ever had over a run of Premier League games without getting a single penalty, on Opta’s records.
Perhaps the best example of this bias on Sunday was in the closing stages of the game, when Darwin Nunez challenged Renato Veiga in a 50-50 that he won only to be penalised for the shoulder-to-shoulder clash.
Slot and Nunez reacted frantically, both showing their emotions but turning their attention away from the referee due to them each being on a yellow card.
Liverpool’s Dutch boss added: “It didn’t happen what all people always think, that Anfield gives you the easy penalties at least.
“Is that true or not?”
Press officer Tony Barrett then replied: “Definitely not.”
Slot continued and also put forward a valid argument about the lack of consistency regarding added time, saying: “Definitely not, no. Today it showed again that it wasn’t because again, people in Holland know me how much frustration I have about the extra time added on to a game and there was no time delay at all from us today.
“And the last time we lost a game (against Nottingham Forest), it was for 45 minutes, time delay, time delay, time delay, time delay – he added on six minutes.
@skysports Those Nunez and Slot reactions ? #premierleague #nunez #liverpool ? original sound – Sky Sports
“And of course seven maybe was true because of a VAR moment, but apart from the decisions that happened this extra time is a bit of a frustration for me as well.”
Slot did think, though, in a roundabout way, that certain decisions going against the Reds actually worked in Liverpool’s favour overall.
The Dutchman added: “I definitely helped our players because they had to work so hard and then every time they cheers so hard for you if you made a block tackle or Darwin sprinted back or all these moments, that definitely helps you mentally.
“So, they were really important for us for our players.”
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