Wednesday night was frustrating in more ways than one for Arne Slot as Liverpool’s seven-match winning streak ended away to Newcastle.
The Reds were well below their best at St James’ Park but were on course for victory in the closing stages before Fabian Schar rescued a point for the home side in a rollercoaster 3-3 draw.
Aside from the concession of two points on a night when all of our title rivals won, no fewer than five LFC players were booked by Andy Madley, with Alexis Mac Allister’s yellow card ruling out of the Merseyside derbydue to suspension.
Slot frustrated with Andy Madley
Speaking to the media afterwards, Slot couldn’t hide his annoyance at the readiness with which the referee reached into his pocket during the match.
The Liverpool head coach said (via liverpoolfc.com): “In the first half we had a lot of problems with their intensity, aggressive playing style without the ball – aggressive in a good way.
“We tried to cope with it, but every time we touched them we got a yellow, and that doesn’t really help for us to be intense then as well.”
Slot right to be annoyed at card-happy refereeing
The match at St James’ Park was by no means a dirty one, so for Madley to show seven yellow cards felt excessive, especially considering the nature of some of those.
Whilst there can be no complaints about the cautions for Jarell Quansah and Ryan Gravenberch for pullbacks on Newcastle players before half-time, Darwin Nunez was later booked for minor dissent, and the card shown to Mac Allister was an incredibly harsh way for him to be ruled out of the Everton game at the weekend.
According to Sofascore, the Argentine went into the book for persistent fouling, but three fouls over the course of 90 minutes doesn’t fall into that category, and the one which resulted in him being carded wasn’t exactly a scything challenge on Schar.
Only four teams have collected fewer yellow cards than Liverpool’s 31 in the Premier League this season, and unlike the Reds, three of those have had a player sent off (WhoScored), so the frequency with which Madley reached for his pocket last night certainly seemed over the top.
We can see why Slot was annoyed with the official at St James’ Park, especially regarding the costly caution for Mac Allister, but the Dutchman will also know that his team were culpable of too many mistakes against Newcastle and must look at themselves first when assessing why two points were dropped.