Liverpool duo ruled out of Newcastle game hours before kick-off; will also miss upcoming fixture | OneFootball

Liverpool have had their plans for tonight’s game against Newcastle thrown somewhat off course in the hours leading up to kick-off.

The Reds will be without Conor Bradley, Joe Gomez and Tyler Morton for the fixture due to their respective injury concerns, and two other men won’t be involved against the Magpies either.

Slot and Hulshoff given two-game touchline ban

As per The Athletic, LFC head coach Arne Slot and his assistant Sipke Hulshoff have both been handed a two-game touchline ban following the events of the Merseyside derby a fortnight ago.

The duo were shown red cards by Michael Oliver after the final whistle at Goodison Park following vehement protests to the referee, with controversy surrounding both of Everton’s goals that night, including the 98th-minute equaliser from James Tarkowski.

The pair will now miss Liverpool’s next two Premier League games (tonight v Newcastle and the 8 March fixture v Southampton), and ironically their next top-flight match back in the technical area will be the Toffees’ visit to Anfield on 2 April.

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Johnny Heitinga will take charge of the first team in the fixtures for which Slot and Hulshoff are banned. The sanction doesn’t apply to either of the upcoming Champions League games against Paris Saint-Germain, or the Carabao Cup final against the Magpies next month.

The Reds’ head coach was also hit by a £70,000 fine for his actions at Goodison Park, with his assistant being it in the pocket for 10% of that figure, and LFC were fined £50,000 for failing ‘to ensure their players and/or technical area occupants did not behave in an improper and/or provocative way following the final whistle’.

Not ideal for Liverpool before big game, but Slot can still have input

It’s far from ideal for Slot to be hit with that touchline ban only a few hours before kick-off against Newcastle, but he’d have known that the suspension was coming ever since the tempestuous Merseyside derby, and at least now there’s no longer any uncertainty over when it’ll be applied.

The time that it took for the hearing to reach a verdict also enabled him and Hulshoff to be in the technical area for the last three Premier League games, including visits to Villa Park and the Etihad Stadium, so perhaps it could’ve worked out much worse for Liverpool.

Although the pair won’t be on the sideline tonight or against Southampton, they can still watch from the Anfield directors’ box and use remote communication or a ‘runner’ to issue messages to those in the dugout, and they can address the team in the dressing room before, during and after both games.

It’ll actually be the second time this season that Slot won’t be on the touchline for a fixture against the Saints, having also been banned for the Carabao Cup quarter-final at St Mary’s in December for accumulating three yellow cards in the top flight.

Of course it’s not ideal to be without our head coach for the next couple of league games, but at least they can still have a substantial input from afar, and hopefully Heitinga can make a positive impression when directing matters from the technical area tonight and on 8 March.