What Arne Slot allegedly said to provoke red card from Michael Oliver according to lip reader | OneFootball

An expert lip reader has provided an interpretation as to what Arne Slot allegedly told Michael Oliver immediately after Liverpool’s 2-2 draw against Everton on Wednesday night.

A dramatic last-ever Merseyside derby at Goodison Park ended in chaotic scenes as Abdoulaye Doucoure goaded away fans at the final whistle, with Curtis Jones taking exception to the provocation and a mass brawl breaking out.

Both players were shown red cards after the fracas, as were the Reds’ head coach and his assistant Sipke Hulshoff as they remonstrated with the official just after full-time.

What is Slot alleged to have told Oliver?

As per Liverpool Echo, a two-word comment by Slot towards Oliver is understood to have prompted the 39-year-old to reach for his pocket and pull out the red card.

According to expert lip reader Jeremy Freeman, the Dutchman told the 39-year-old that he had a ‘great game’, a remark that the referee seemed to interpret as sarcasm – hence the punishment he doled out to the Reds’ head coach, who replied “Sure, you give me a red for that?… I will check it out for later…me and you, yeah?”.

At that point, Virgil van Dijk stepped in and spoke to the official, with the apparent belief that Slot’s vigorous handshake triggered the red card, rather than his appraisal of Oliver’s performance.

The Liverpool captain is alleged to have said: “Hey, Michael…that was not a pull [of your arm]… Michael… it isn’t personal”, before then pleading with his boss to ‘keep away’ from the situation.

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

If true, it’s an overreaction from Oliver

If Oliver pulled out a straight red card just because he thought Slot sarcastically said he had a ‘great game’, that was highly impetuous and unnecessary from the Northumberland whistler. If that was as severe as the Liverpool head coach’s words got, surely it warranted no more than a caution.

Of course we want to see referees and officials being treated with respect, given the incredibly difficult job that they do, but that doesn’t give them a right to consider themselves as untouchable or superior to everybody else involved in the game.

The 39-year-old was culpable of some poor decisions on the night, wrongly awarding the free kick from which Everton took the lead and then missing a clear foul on Ibrahima Konate in the lead-up to James Tarkowski’s stoppage-time equaliser.

Such errors will naturally come with constructive criticism of his performance, but some of the vicious personal abuse which has been directed towards Oliver online is completely out of order, and we strongly condemn such behaviour. The same goes for racist abuse which has sadly been aimed at Doucoure.

Yet again, the postmortem on a high-profile Premier League fixture has been dominated by questionable refereeing, and it’s only with a consistent raising of standards that public trust in the PGMOL and its officials will be improved.