Arne Slot refused to bemoan the decision not to send off Ipswich Town’s Julio Enciso for poleaxing Wataru Endo after Liverpool’s 4-1 win at Anfield
Arne Slot refused to bemoan the decision not to send off Ipswich Town’s Julio Enciso for poleaxing Wataru Endo as the Liverpool boss reflected on a comfortable 4-1 win at Anfield.
Cody Gakpo scored twice after Mohamed Salah had doubled the advantage from Dominik Szoboszlai’s opener but the Reds were denied a clean sheet through Jacob Greaves’s late header.
Substitute Endo needed treatment from the physios after fellow sub Enciso launched into a dangerous challenge on the Japan captain in the second half. The on-loan Brighton winger was only shown a yellow card by referee Michael Salisbury.
READ MORE: What happened when scoreline was announced speaks volumes as Liverpool rubbish tedious debate
Slot said he had yet to watch it back at full time but saw no need to inflame the situation further, claiming the decision must have been the correct one by the official as he praised Endo’s ability to play on with no fuss.
“Yeah, when the foul was made, I was like: ‘Oh that doesn’t look good’,” Slot said. “And the reaction from the players that were around him showed me and I was like: ‘Oh let’s wait and see’.
“But after the game, Wata, immediately during the game already, he just shakes his head one or two times and just goes again. His mentality is unbelievable and he was fine. So it was only a yellow so I assume that the fear I had was not realistic because it was only a yellow.
“In general, I don’t think referees act like that (no red card because it wasn’t a close game) because if they do so, they hear it from the people above them: ‘You have to do what is necessary’. I assume it was a yellow, I haven’t watched it back but I assume.”
Slot added: “Yeah [it was comfortable] and that’s mostly because we scored an early goal. It’s been a few times that we have played a home game and conceded a goal at the start of the game. Today is the way you want to start a game. We were aggressive, dominant and for 85 minutes, they had hardly been in our half.
“It is a counter-attacking threat with the wingers they have and Delap but we managed to control that so, so well because of the amount of work we put in. In the end, we are all disappointed conceding from a corner, the first one this season.
“But for 85 minutes, it was almost a perfect performance against a team that goes to such a low block. That’s not always easy but the way we did it for 85 minutes was really good.”