Liverpool manager Arne Slot has offered his support to left-back Andy Robertson after his costly red card 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, unable to control an attempted interception before pouncing to try and stop a direct attack on goal.
with Liverpool At that point, already 1-0 down, 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 that Robertson was trying to bounce back from a hit he took early in the game and that he may not have been at his best when he faced Wilson’s onslaught.
“I think what the team showed, the character they showed, that’s what Robbo showed as well,” Slot said. “Sometimes if you get a kick like that, two studs in one knee, it can hurt for a few minutes. Then if you keep 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 wasn’t also a left-back. So, we were hoping that he would get through it and I think he did quite well, but the moment I realized that He wasn’t quite himself was the only time they put the ball in the back and he started running.”
Slot continued: “He was able to get it back to Ali (Alisson) but I thought, ‘OK, let’s see how this continues’ and I think it was very quickly after that where he conceded the red card. There there is nothing to blame. He, (was) a character who wanted to continue because he received a pretty strong knee with two red card studs.”
As Robertson was sent off for denying a goal chance, rather than violent conduct, he will only serve a one-match ban and will therefore miss midweek’s Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Southampton.
