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Arne Slot has warned that announcing VAR decisions to the crowd could backfire with referees being put under more pressure with home fans.
Supporters at Anfield for Liverpool’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Tottenham on Thursday will hear officials explain their decisions as the competition is used as a guinea pig before the initiative is rolled out for the Premier League.
Though the idea of extra communication for the paying match-goers has been broadly met with approval, Slot didn’t enjoy the experience of the first leg when a clear offside against Dominic Solanke was verbally explained but the decision to not award Tottenham’s Lucas Bergvall a red card was not.
Bergvall ended up scoring the only goal of the game to give Spurs a slender advantage ahead of the rematch.
‘I wonder if we are all going to like this,’ mused Slot about referees being miked up and announcing the decisions.
‘I wonder if it a good thing for the referee because he is already under a lot of pressure in every game from the home fans.
‘And I think him explaining something if it’s against the home team would even add more pressure in the next decisions he has to make.
‘I was there in the Spurs stadium. I think maybe if he (referee Stuart Attwell) would have explained it (not punishing Bergvall) and it disadvantaged the home team, then maybe it becomes even more pressure.
‘For me it is not necessary to announce things. But I can see the live coverage of everything (on a screen), it is not available or every fan so it’s something nice for them.’
Slot also questioned why teams aren’t allowed to name their squad of 23 on the bench like in World Cup tournaments to prevent him having to exclude some first-team players from his match-day party.
Federico Chiesa and Joe Gomez weren’t on the bench for Liverpool’s last game against Bournemouth though both could feature against Spurs.
Trent Alexander-Arnold is ruled out of the semi-final because of a thigh injury with Conor Bradley deputising.
‘Trent is going to miss the game,’ confirmed Slot. ‘We have to see if he can play in the FA Cup on Sunday but we know he’s not available for Wednesday.
‘I think you saw him leave the pitch at Bournemouth with a bit of a pain in his leg. He is already on the training pitch but not with the team, but with the rehab coach. Let’s see how long it will take.’
That is the feedback we gave Conor, he wasn’t involved in every goal but he was in one where he didn’t follow the overlap aggressively enough and that led to the third goal.
It’s an opportunity for Bradley who was at fault for a goal in Liverpool’s 3-2 Champions League defeat against PSV.
‘You can learn from every game and hat is the feedback we gave Conor,’ said Slot. ‘He wasn’t involved in every goal but he was in one where he didn’t follow the overlap aggressively enough and that led to the third goal.’
