Roy Hodgson hits out at Liverpool win, VAR and football

Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson was not impressed after Liverpool came from behind to earn Premier League win on Saturday

'If I have to be brutal' - Roy Hodgson hits out at Liverpool win, VAR and football

Bookmark

Roy Hodgson claims he has been left “disillusioned” with football after his former side Liverpool came from behind to beat his Crystal Palace side.

Mohamed Salah’s 200th Reds goal and an injury-time strike from substitute Harvey Elliott saw Jurgen Klopp’s side come from behind to earn a 2-1 Premier League win at Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon.

Palace had gone ahead in the second half through a Jean-Philippe Mateta penalty before Jordan Ayew was sent off for two bookable offences less than two minutes before Salah’s equaliser.

IAN DOYLE VERDICT: What celebrating Liverpool supporters and players did shows truth about title chance

PLAYER RATINGS: Liverpool player ratings as Alisson and Harvey Elliott excellent against Crystal Palace

Klopp later admitted he felt Liverpool had been fortunate to earn a victory, and ex-Anfield boss Hodgson said: “It’s nice to know there are still enough serious football people out there to judge games on the merit it has to be judged on.

“The first thing I’d like to say is I don’t want you discussing my mood or how I am or saying I looked exasperated or upset. You can do what you want with what I say. Do me a favour.

“To force us to play with 10 men for the last 15 plus minutes in a game which at that point we thought we dealt with extremely well was a really, really harsh outcome. It was certainly not worthy of what the team had produced.

“I am disillusioned with the game. This game was pretty much what the game is these days. You tell me if that’s right? You should be disillusioned too.”

Palace’s penalty was awarded for a foul on Mateta by Liverpool youngster Jarell Quansah, with play being stopped after a VAR check was concluded almost two minutes after the initial offence.

Referee Andy Madley had awarded Palace a spot kick in the first half only to be asked by VAR to rule on what was eventually adjudged a foul by Will Hughes on Wataru Endo in the build-up.

And a bewildered Hodgson said: “Which referee do you want to believe? Do you believe the ref on the field who gave one penalty and not the other, or the one in VAR who didn’t give one and then did the other? At least we got one penalty. And we did score it.”

Ayew was dismissed for a foul on Elliott having earlier in the second half been booked for not allowing Virgil van Dijk to take a free-kick quickly.

And Hodgson said: “You wouldn’t believe how disappointed and upset he is. I’m sure some of you have played football and you know how it is sometimes to play a game where you really do well and exceed expectations and then at the end of it, due to the circumstances which controlled this game, you end up losing it. There’s no way to describe those feelings.

“What can I do about that? If I have to be brutal, I can’t do anything. I can praise them for their performance today. I can say you were so unlucky. I can blame the referee. I can blame lots of things.

“But the bottom line is this is a game where I thought after 75 minutes we were looking likely to win 1-0 and we’ve lost 2-1. And in a week or two’s time, I'll be doing a press conference where you'll be telling me we lost five out of six or six out of seven."

Story Saved
You can find this story in  My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.