Liverpool should have been playing the majority of their draw with Aston Villa against ten men as Craig Pawson “got a decision wrong” according to Keith Hackett.
Mohamed Salah gave Liverpool the lead at Villa Park before Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins struck to put the hosts ahead at half-time.
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s deflected shot on the hour mark drew Arne Slot’s side level to increase Liverpool’s lead at the top of the table to eight points.
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But Hackett claims the Reds should have had a man advantage from the 22nd minute, when Alexis Mac Allister went down clutching his face after a coming together with Axel Disasi.
The defender – loaned from Chelsea in January – swung his body round and caught Mac Allister in the face, with VAR clearing the incident after referee Craig Pawson had shown Disasi a yellow card.
When asked by Football Insider about the incident, Hackett – the former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA official – couldn’t believe Disasi got away with it.
He said: “I really don’t get it. If you strike, or attempt to strike an opponent, as Disasi did against Mac Allister, then that is a red card offence.
“There was clearly force, Mac Allister went to ground pretty quickly, so where was VAR? Because Craig Pawson, I’m sorry, you got that decision wrong.
“You were too lenient, that player should have walked.”
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Liverpool were far from convincing again but missed a couple of very presentable opportunities to claim all three points.
Diogo Jota failed to get the requisite curl on a one-on-one, while Darwin Nunez blazed over with no-one to beat at the back post, with the Uruguayan surely the “quite down” Liverpool star Arne Slot was referring to after the game.
“We’ve played a few games now, with Plymouth, with Wolves, with Everton, where the game was not open at all, and that sometimes doesn’t benefit us,” Slot told TNT Sports.
“So you have to play the game as it unfolds, and today we played a team that wanted to play the ball out from the back.
“So we had some very good moments, scored the first goal from a good pressing moment, but we took it the way the game went, and they came back in the final minute (when Donyell Malen shot wide).
“But if you look at the chances we had in the second half to go in front, you can understand there’s one person in the dressing room that feels quite down, and you know who it is I think.”
