Arne Slot questions VAR after Liverpool and Manchester United controversy - 'not the first time'

Arne Slot

Arne Slot has questioned the consistency of VAR after Liverpool's top-four rivals Manchester United benefited from a contentious decision at the weekend.

United were trailing at home to Crystal Palace on Sunday when they were awarded a penalty and the visitors had Maxence Lacroix sent off for holding Matheus Cunha narrowly inside the area following a VAR check.

It was not dissimilar to a foul by Manchester City defender Marc Guehi on Mohamed Salahat Anfield last month in which the player escaped with a yellow card and no spot kick was given.

Bruno Fernandes scored the penalty as United went on to win 2-1, while City came from behind to beat Liverpool by the same scoreline while keeping 11 men on the pitch.

And Slot, who was watching the Old Trafford game on television, was left surprised by the decision to send off Lacroix that helped allow United to maintain their three-point advantage over Liverpool in the battle for a top-four finish.

Slot

"Very comparable,"

"The only difference is Mo was pulled by the shirt and here it was a hand on the shoulder.

"If I look at it, I see a similar distance, and maybe even the distance between Guehi and (Ruben) Dias was a bigger distance than the distance between both centre-backs of Palace, but let's check it to see.

"The moment I saw it when I was watching it live, knowing what had happened to us in that situation, (I thought) VAR is probably checking if it it's even a penalty, but he will never, ever give a red card for this.

"This is what I sometimes hold against VAR. Every time when the Premier League comes in, they tell me there were only two wrong decisions over a whole season.

"In both these situations, it is VAR interference. Nine times out of 10 in football, if the referee gives a red card then I stay away from it and accept the decision. Or if the referee did nothing, I stay away from it as I accept the decision.

"But in both situations, the referee did not give a red card. In one situation, VAR overturned it to a red card. That is for me, either one or two is a mistake.

"This was for me a red card. I said so many times that it was clear the one from Guehi was a red card as well, but I wasn't backed up by everyone.

"I think the panel said afterwards the correct decision was made. I'm expecting the panel to say 'wrong decision was made by VAR' (for the Palace red card)."

Slot added: "Of course, there is a frustration as it's not the first time. Remember the goal disallowed from us at City, the header (by Virgil van Dijk), then we played Forest in exactly the same situation and the goal was allowed.

"But I've said many times we have to make sure we don't depend on these decisions. We are better than that, and that we just win our games by being so good that even when decisions go against us -

“and I'm not saying every decision has gone against us in my time here, as that's not true - but sometimes they do and you have to make sure it doesn't hurt you”

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