Liverpool manager Arne Slot has offered his support to left-back Andy Robertson after his costly red card in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Fulham.
Robertson was shown a straight red card just 17 minutes into the game after a last-man foul on Harry Wilson, failing to control an attempted interception before lunging to try and stop a direct attack on goal.
With Liverpool already 1-0 down at the time, it left the Reds with a real mountain to climb and they needed a late strike from substitute Diogo Jota to salvage a point.
After the game, Slot argued Robertson was trying to shake off a knock he picked up earlier in the game and was perhaps not in his best physical condition when he found himself faced with Wilson’s attack.
“I think what the team showed, the character they showed, that’s also what Robbo showed,” Slot said. “Sometimes if you get a kick like this, two studs on a knee, that can hurt for a few minutes. Then, if you just keep on running, it gets better and better and that’s what we were hoping for.
“Not least because I only had one defender on the bench, who was not a left full-back as well. So, we were hoping he was managing to come through it and I think he did quite well, but the moment I noticed he wasn’t completely himself was the one time they put the ball in behind and he started running.”
Slot continued: “He was just able to head it back to Ali [Alisson], but I thought, ‘OK, let’s see how this continues’ and I think it was quite quickly afterwards where he conceded the red card. Nothing to blame on him, [it was] character that he wanted to continue because he got quite a hard knock on his knee with two studs. Unfortunately, it led to a red card that was a deserved red card.”
As Robertson was dismissed for denying a goal-scoring opportunity, rather than violent conduct, he will only serve a one-game ban and will therefore miss the midweek Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Southampton.
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