Four days ago, Liverpool manager Arne Slot was unhappy with a narrow Champions League victory in Girona, but on Saturday the Dutchman was delighted with his team’s resilience in a 2-2 draw with Fulham after his 10-man team twice defended the target in hole.
Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota scored for Liverpool, who remain top of the Premier League with 36 points after 15 games and five points ahead of Chelsea, and Jota’s 86th-minute equalizer sent Anfield fans into a frenzy.
“I think it was completely the opposite to the game against Girona, where I was happy with the result (1-0), but not with the performance,” Slot said. “Now I’m very, very, very happy with the performance. I couldn’t ask for more.
“Obviously not because of the result, because if you drop points at home against Fulham, it’s certainly not something you expect or want, but having conceded twice, there are a lot of things going against you, except for one thing , i.e. our players and our fans, were excellent today.”
Liverpool were reduced to 10 men in the 17th minute after Andy Robertson’s awkward tackle on Harry Wilson denied him a chance to score. There was a lengthy VAR review which confirmed the red card and whether Wilson was in an offside position.
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Slot said Robertson was still feeling the effects of an early knock to his knee, which contributed to his red card.
“I think what the team showed today, the character they showed, that’s what Robbo showed too, and sometimes if you get a kick like that, two pins to the knee, it can hurt for a few minutes and then if you just keep running, and then it will get better and better and that’s what we’re counting on.
“I (also) only had one defender on the bench, who is not also a left back. So we were hoping he (Robertson) could get through it, but the moment I noticed he wasn’t quite himself was that one time when (Fulham) put the ball behind his back and started running. He just managed to get the ball to (goalkeeper Alisson).
“But I thought, ‘OK, let’s see how this goes.’ And I think it was quite soon afterwards that he was awarded the red card. You can’t fault him, he showed the character to continue after being hit hard on the knee. Unfortunately, it ended with a red card. It was a deserved red card.”
The sending-off ended an already difficult afternoon for Robertson, who played a part in Fulham’s first match, where Andreas Pereira’s shot deflected off the Scot’s thigh and into the net after 11 minutes.
