Alexis Mac Allister did not merit to be sent off against Bournemouth, according to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who also lauded his team’s comeback in Saturday’s 3-1 victory at Anfield despite playing with 10 men.
In the 58th minute, Mac Allister, a summer acquisition from Brighton, was sent for a high challenge, resulting in a three-game suspension for the Argentine midfielder.
The Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola commented during the game that the sending off “did not look like a red card.” The decision to send the player off appeared severe.
Klopp agreed with his counterpart, telling Sky Sports: “I understand 100% how it looks for a ref in that moment but when you see it back, it is the inside of the foot and no power behind it.
“We saw harsher challenges which were not a red card and this shouldn’t have been one. I don’t know exactly what we have to do, but we should talk about it again.”
After being taken off guard in the first five minutes, Liverpool had to come back from a goal down as Bournemouth had a goal disallowed for offside before seizing the lead through Antoine Semenyo in the third minute.
Although they stumbled, the home team did well to recover as goals from Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota sealed the victory after Luis Daz had restored parity following Semenyo’s strike.
“Horrible start to the game. I thought the first goal we conceded was offside and a wake up call. OK, you take that. And then a minute later we conceded a regular goal which is not cool,” Klopp said.
“We needed a few minutes to shake it off and then we were really good. The second half it changed completely because all of a sudden we were 10 men but scored the third goal, which is very important in this moment.
“It gave us energy. It is second match day and tough. It was surprisingly hot today, so it was intense for the boys but we fought through that and didn’t concede anymore, got the three points and that is all that I need.”
According to Klopp, Liverpool handled giving up a goal against Bournemouth better than they did in their 1-1 season-opening draw with Chelsea.
“When we found our way into the game we played in areas we had to play and we were calm, which is good,” Klopp said.
“I said after Chelsea, after we conceded I saw us getting into a rush. I did not see that today. We found our way back into it and played the game we wanted.”
Liverpool will visit Newcastle United next.
