Virgil van Dijk believes referee Tony Harrington looked ‘nervous’ during Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Fulham on Saturday.
Arne Slot’s side salvaged a point following Diogo Jota’s goal in the 86th minute but were forced to come from behind twice and also had Andy Robertson sent off in the first half.
The Liverpool left-back was dismissed for denying a goalscoring opportunity but Liverpool were aggrieved after high challenges from Andreas Pereira and Issa Diop only received yellow cards.
‘I had conversations with the other players of Fulham, and we all felt like he [the referee] was a little bit nervous. I don’t know,’ Van Dijk said after the game.
‘We felt it a little bit [that the referee was nervous], but together with Robertson we couldn’t properly communicate with him, I felt.
‘It is what it is. We can’t put the blame on the referee but it’s also part of the game.’
When asked if he would like dialogue from the officials as Liverpool’s captain, Van Dijk replied: ‘We are apparently the only ones who can speak to the referee.
‘We all speak about protecting the referee, but if I want to speak on behalf of my team I should be able to.
‘We shouldn’t make a big thing out of this, it’s probably going to happen now, but it isn’t the reason why we dropped points.
‘We take the points and move on.’
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