Steven Gerrard slams two penalty decisions as Liverpool legend suffers controversial defeat on Anfield return with Villa
STEVEN GERRARD slammed the two decisions that cost him a point on his first return to Anfield as a manager.
The Aston Villa boss insisted ref Stuart Attwell and VAR got it wrong when awarding a penalty against Tyrone Mings that allowed Mo Salah to claim the winner and his 21st goal of the season.
He was even more upset a spot-kick was not awarded against Liverpool No 1 Alisson after he clashed with ex-Anfield striker Danny Ings three minutes from the end.
Legendary former Kop skipper Gerrard declared: “There were two penalty incidents in the game, Liverpool got theirs — but if you look at that one, Salah fouls Mings first.
“We’ve lost to a soft penalty because if you watch it properly, Tyrone’s been fouled first.
“The disappointing thing is that the referee hasn’t gone to look at it.
“If an arm goes anywhere near Alisson, it’s a foul. So why isn’t a foul given for Danny Ings?
“They are the questions I’d like answering but I can’t answer them now.
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“It’s always hard to take when you lose football matches because while Liverpool were better in terms of general play we’ve done well to contain them for large periods.”
Klopp’s men stay second in the title race having now won eight successive games in all competitions and scored for a 26th game in a row.
The German gave Gerrard a hug before kick-off and did not get involved over his protests. He said: “Nothing will come between him and me.
“But around the game we are pretty focused.
“That’s the idea of this game, that you can be the best friend with somebody and when you play against each other you want to beat him anyway.
“The fuss around him coming back was absolutely right but there is one person it was not so easy for and that’s Stevie.
“He is a Liverpool legend — we cannot change that now and we shouldn’t try to.
“They did really well, they obviously fought really hard for a result, pushed by Stevie.
“It’s all fine and I like as well that we at the end got the three points anyway.”
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