Arne Slot on red card regrets, Gakpo injury and Liverpool draw with Everton | OneFootball

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot admitted that his emotions got the better of him in the aftermath of Wednesday’s heated Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, where he was shown a red card by referee Michael Oliver following the final whistle.

Slot could not conduct his post-match press conference due to him and his assistant Sipke Hulshoff being sent off.

So speaking publicly for the first time since the incident, Slot acknowledged his frustration over the chaotic end to the 2-2 draw against Everton but refused to go into specifics about what led to his dismissal.

“There is an ongoing process now, and I think we have to respect that and can’t go into details,” Slot told reporters ahead of Liverpool’s clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday.

“What happened was that the extra time, five minutes that ended up being eight, has happened a lot.

“My emotions got the better of me. If I look back at it, I would love to do it differently. I’m hoping to handle it better next time, but I don’t want to discuss exactly what was said.

‘”There was a VAR check and then five minutes of extra-time ended up as eight minutes, a lot of things happened that led me to be emotional but it wouldn’t be smart to go into every incident.”

Slot was visibly unhappy with several decisions made by Oliver, particularly James Tarkowski’s late equaliser, which came in the 98th minute despite only five minutes of added time being initially indicated.

Though he initially saw the draw as two points dropped, Slot admitted that, upon reflection, he was pleased with the team’s response.

“We would have loved to go nine points ahead, that would have been better than seven, but we take a lot of positives from the game as well,” he added.

Slot also provided updates on his squad ahead of Sunday’s match, confirming that Joe Gomez and Tyler Morton will be unavailable. Trent Alexander-Arnold, who returned from injury with a brief cameo against Everton, is now ready to play the full 90 minutes.

Cody Gakpo, however, remains a doubt after picking up a knock late in the game. “We were off yesterday, so I don’t know exactly,” Slot explained. “Cody is a bit of a doubt. Let’s wait and see how he is today, but I had to take him off because of an injury. He got a knock, so we’ll see how he is.”

Liverpool will look to put the derby frustration behind them as they prepare for a crucial fixture against Wolves on Sunday at Anfield.