The decision not to dismiss Ibrahima Konate during Liverpool's win against Wolves came after a pre-season directive to referees was reinforced in January.

Konate was already on a yellow card when he went into a challenge with Wolves' Matheus Cunha.

Jarell Quansah took his place, and delivered an important late intervention to keep the Reds in front after Cunha brought Wolves back from 2-0 to 2-1.

Former Premier League official Peter Walton has acted as a refereeing analyst in recent years, keeping tabs on changes and instructions given to those currently taking charge of top-flight games.

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"At the start of this season, Premier League referees were encouraged to raise the threshold for physical contact that should be considered a foul," Walton wrote in The Times.

In theory, the threshold for showing yellow cards should not have changed but because stronger challenges are being allowed in general, there has been a knock-on effect on the number of cards."

Since the turn of the year, the average number of cards per Premier League game this season has dropped from 4.7 to 3.5, and Walton wondered aloud whether the instructions played into the mind of referee Hooper on Sunday?

"It was clearly a foul, and of course some referees may have given a yellow card for it, but in this new climate I can see why Simon Hooper decided not to," he wrote.

Did Ibrahima Konate deserve a second yellow card(

If he would have got the second one for a shoulder push, that would again be a soft yellow, so then he would have been sent off by two soft yellows," Slot told reporters.