Arne Slot rejects Liverpool red card request after watching incident again

Arne Slot insisted he was not concerned by Jarell Quansah’s late dismissal as much-changed Liverpool held on to beat Southampton.

Arne Slot insists he was not concerned by Jarell Quansah’s late sending off as a much-changed Liverpool held on to beat Southampton 2-1 and reach the last four of the Carabao Cup.

With the Saints looking for an equalizer in the closing stages, Mateus Fernandes succumbed to a challenge from last man Quansah on the edge of the box, but referee Simon Hooper dismissed the home side’s claims as goals from Darwin Nunez and Harvey Elliott did some damage despite Cameron Archer’s effort in the second half.

When asked if he was nervous at the time, Slot claimed he didn’t think it was a foul and said he looked back to get his perspective confirmed by replays.

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“As soon as the ball goes over, you’re not nervous anymore,” said Slot, who watched the game from the press box due to a suspension. “But the moment you see two players going against each other, is that the way to use it?

“Then you always wonder what the decision could be. In real time, I thought he could have made a different choice. But then I saw him again and I felt he just used his arm. For me, it wasn’t a foul, but you never know with referees’ decisions, right?

On the team changing a lot, Slot added: “It would be normal that if I played with all the regular starters, we would have a better team than tonight. Otherwise, I make the wrong decision every week, which is perhaps a possibility.

“But we also have confidence in these players because we know how quality they are. So that’s the first reason to play these players is that we have a lot of confidence in them as well.

“Secondly, it is not a question of the result on Sunday. It is rather for the long-term physical condition of the players that we made the decision that those who played so many minutes give them a little rest this week because the schedule will still be intense in the coming weeks.

“And for those who played a lot, only 45 or 60 minutes, and for those who didn’t play a lot, play 90. So that’s what we did, and it’s good for us that that was enough to win.”