Former Everton and Wales defender, Ashley Williams, was left baffled by the decision not to send off Manchester City‘s Rodri during the first half of the Liverpool-City clash.
Ashley Williams slams referee’s decision in Liverpool vs City match
Despite being shown a yellow card for pulling back Diogo Jota, Rodri went on to commit a second bookable offense just a minute later by bundling Cody Gakpo to the ground, but the referee chose not to take action.
Williams commented that he expected Rodri to be shown a second yellow card, and questioned how often players get away with such offenses. Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, he said:
“As a fan watching this game, that’s a yellow card, all day long that’s a second yellow card. It’s a confusing one for me. How many of them do you see that get a yellow card?”
While Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp agreed that Rodri was fortunate to stay on the pitch, he refused to use it as an excuse for his team’s poor performance.
Liverpool’s underwhelming display against City
Klopp continued to tear into his side for their display and claimed that only a clutch of his players came out of the clash with credit. He added:
“Four performances were okay, the two midfielders, Hendo [ Jordan Henderson ] and Fab [Fabinho], worked a lot, Cody [Gakpo] and Ali [Alisson] and that is very difficult.
If you want to get something here, 14 or 15 players have to be on top of their game and that was not the case.”
Speaking after the game, he damningly claimed:
“I didn’t see good enough. I realised the situation but could he have got a second yellow? Yes, probably. He will not get it now. And yeah I’m not sure we would have won today against ten men.”
Despite taking an early lead through Mohamed Salah, Liverpool slumped to a 4-1 defeat, with City proving to be the better side on the day.
Klopp admitted that only a few of his players came out of the game with any credit, and that City could have scored more if not for the few chances that Liverpool had.
Klopp will certainly hope to get his side back on track over the next few weeks as they aim to secure a place in the Champions League ahead of next season but face a handful of testing fixtures.
The Reds are currently in eighth place and trail fourth-placed Tottenham by seven points as they prepare to face Chelsea and current league leaders Arsenal next week.
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