The latest Liverpool news as the Reds take on Newcastle United in the Premier League on Tuesday night as they look to increase their advantage at the top of the table.
The Premier League have confirmed a late change in referee for Liverpool’s clash against Newcastle United on Tuesday night (8.15pm kick-off). Stuart Attwell will now be the man in the middle.
When the officials team was first announced earlier this week, Chris Kavanagh was named as the referee with Simon Bennett and Dan Robathan as assistants. Darren Bon is the fourth official, with Matt Donohue on VAR and Wade Smith as his assistant.
While none of the other officials have changed, the Premier League’s official website now shows Stuart Attwell as the referee for the game. The reason for the change has not been confirmed.
Attwell was meant to be in charge of Thursday night’s game between West Ham United and Leicester City, but has been replaced by Anthony Taylor for that match to allow him to step in for the Liverpool clash.
The change in referee may not go down too well with Reds’ boss Arne Slot, who was openly critical of Attwell’s decision not to send off Tottenham’s Lucas Bergvall in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg. The midfielder went on to score the winning goal in that game after avoiding a second yellow card.
“I don’t think there’s any debate about that,” Slot said after the game when asked if Bergavll should have been shown a second yellow. “They say he (the referee) didn’t (want to) stop the counter-attack and I say every manager would prefer when a tackle being made 40 yards from our goalkeeper, that the player is given a second yellow card rather than to continue the counter-attack with a player less to play that counter-attack with.
The next discussion is was it reckless enough to give advantage and come back and say the tackle was still too reckless and then give a yellow. When he (the referee) didn’t give the second yellow nobody thought it would have such a big impact 30 seconds later.
“I haven’t asked him, but I’m 99.9% sure I wasn’t the only one who felt ‘wow, not the best’. I’m 99.9% sure when Bergvall scored the referee thought ‘oh, is this really happening?’ because he couldn’t change it anymore. I think for him it was also far from ideal.”
Liverpool go into the game against Newcastle knowing that a win could see them open up a 14 point gap over second placed Arsenal, depending on the Gunners’ result. Arsenal take on Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, with kick-off at 7.30pm.
