Slot says Mac Allister could have been seriously injured by Tarkowski challenge in Liverpool’s win over Everton | OneFootball

Liverpool boss Arne Slot says James Tarkowski should have been sent off for an “obvious” red card challenge on Alexis Mac Allister.

Tarkowski slid in to win the ball but caught Mac Allister on the follow through with his studs in the first-half of the Merseyside derby with Everton, which Liverpool went on to win 1-0 thanks to Diogo Jota’s goal.

But the decision to let Tarkowski remain on the pitch came as a huge surprise to Slot.

“He kept on playing so I assume he’s okay,” Slot said when asked about Mac Allister’s condition.

“He’s used to something (like this) because he’s from South America.

“But yeah, I think everybody said something about it so why should I add something to it? It’s so obvious that it’s not necessary for me to comment.

“Everyone else did and I would prefer to talk about Diogo’s goal or Curtis Jones’ performance or something else than about the incident.”

Posed to him that it could have been a serious injury for his midfielder, Slot responded: “It could have been but it wasn’t fortunately and he was lucky with that.”

Jota had not scored in the Premier League since January and Slot says he was delighted for the Portugal international to grab the winner against rivals Everton.

“It was a great goal,” he said.

“It was nice to see too that when I was just inside my room, according to the rules it was a goal so no one can complain about that.

“There’s always question marks over a goal but the good thing is we’ve got rules and the rules tell us it’s a clear goal.

“We are chasing down the best possible season we can have and Everton showed today again how difficult it is to win a football game in the Premier League.

“We know that we are going to face eight very tough challenges but as long as the players give as much as they did today and the fans give us as much as they did today, we are in a very good position.”