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Arne Slot speaks with English referee Tony Harrington on the pitch after the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Fulham at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on December 14, 2024.(Image: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)

Arne Slot only hinted at his frustrations with match official Tony Harrington as 10-man Liverpool drew 2-2 with Fulham at Anfield on Saturday but believes Andy Robertson's sending-off was the result of an injury suffered at the hands of Issa Diop early on.

Robertson was dismissed for denying Harry Wilson a clear goalscoring opportunity in the first half, which came after Andreas Pereira had opened the scoring.

But the Liverpool defender had earlier been left in a heap inside the visiting penalty area after being caught high on the knee by Diop, who was only cautioned for the tackle.

Slot admits he had no complaints with the decision to dismiss Robertson after 17 minutes but thinks the sluggishness of the poor touch that allowed Wilson in might have stemmed from the knock picked up by Diop's high boot.

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The Reds boss, though, was coy when asked if he thought the Fulham centre-back's tackle deserved a harsher punishment than an early caution by referee Harrington and the VAR officials.

"If I look back on the 100 minutes I saw I wasn’t surprised he didn’t give a red," Slot said.

And then people told me he got quite a hard knock but the referee gave a yellow, VAR didn’t change it, so it can happen.

So if you get a kick like this, two studs on a knee, it hurts for a bit but if you keep on running it gets better and better and you can run it off.

"That is what I was hoping for not in the least because I only have one defender at left full-back, so you are hoping he was managing to come through it and 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 was just about able to head it back to Alisson.

Nothing to blame on him, his character he wanted to continue after the knock on his knee, unfortunately it led to a red card which was a deserved red card."

Cody Gakpo headed in an equaliser for the 10 men before substitute Rodrigo Muniz backheeled in a second for the Cottagers.

Substitute Diogo Jota marked his first appearance for nearly two months with a second leveller of the afternoon for Liverpool, but Slot's side were unable to force a late winner after nine minutes of stoppage time.

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Despite the result, the Reds boss was delighted with the commitment and general performance of his charges, adding: "I think it exactly is the opposite from Girona where I was pleased but not the performance.

"Here I am very, very happy about the performance, I couldn’t have asked for more but of course not with the result because if you drop points in a home game against Fulham that is definitely not what you expect and what you want.

"But yeah, being a goal down twice, it's all going against you, except for one thing, which is our players and our fans, I thought we were outstanding today."