Liverpool boss Arne Slot has dismissed suggestions that his side benefited from lenient officiating in Saturday’s Merseyside derby, after only three minutes of added time were awarded at the end of the match.
Slot was quick to defend the decision, insisting there was nothing unusual about the referee’s calculation.
“The three minutes were completely correct, by the way, because there were only three moments where a substitution was made. There was no time-wasting because that’s not what we do – unfortunately, I have to say, sometimes – and there was no treatment of injuries, one goal scored,” the Dutchman told the club’s official website.
“Then you come to three [minutes]. Where in many other games when we need a goal, there’s a lot, a lot, a lot of time-wasting going on, I can tell you.”
Premier League fans are wide of the mark
Let’s be honest: we understand how a team’s repeated success can spark all kinds of theories. But the notion that Liverpool are being handed special treatment by referees is simply absurd.
As Slot pointed out, if Liverpool matches sometimes see more stoppage time, it’s usually when their opponents are the ones deliberately slowing things down to protect a result.
Plenty of Liverpool-focused blogs and analysts have shown that the Reds have actually been on the wrong end of contentious officiating and VAR calls over the years.
The truth is straightforward: sometimes a team is just good enough to score late or hold firm under pressure. Liverpool don’t need conspiracies in their favour – they’re simply that good.
