Arne Slot did not seek out referee Andrew Madley at half-time during Liverpool’s 3-3 draw with Newcastle United. The Reds twice came from behind before being forced to settle for a share of the spoils at St. James’ Park on Wednesday night.
The fiery stalemate saw Liverpool’s lead at the top of the Premier League table cut to seven points. But headlines were made off the pitch both during Amazon Prime’s coverage after it was alleged that Slot had approached the official at the interval.
To understands that this did not happen. The Reds head coach did not directly approach Madley or enter the official’s dressing room at half-time.
Slot and Madley were believed to have exchanged words in the tunnel when walking next to each other, but there was no attempt from the Dutchman to directly seek out the official and there was nothing untoward said in their brief conversation, with Amazon’s claim believed to stem from a misunderstanding.
Presenter Dan Walker had claimed that Slot went to see Madley at half-time during Amazon Prime’s coverage of the match.
Speaking over footage of Slot and Newcastle United assistant manager Jason Tindall talking to the official, Walker said: “Before the game he (Madley) said if you want to come and see me at any point, you can. He didn’t specify, here it is, you can see this (the footage) here, he didn’t specify that that was at half-time or full-time.
“We do know that Arne Slot went to see him at the break, after 45 minutes, and obviously, Eddie Howe wasn’t best-pleased about that. I’m sure there’s going to be more said and more written and more spoken about that in the future.”
Pundit Shay Given would point Tindall’s presence in the footage, with it unclear if Amazon Prime were showing Madley telling both camps they could come to him at any time from before the match, or if it was the alleged exchange between Slot and the official at the interval.
“Jason Tindall is in the picture as well,” Given said. “The assistant manager from Newcastle in the background as well so I don’t know if he’s jumped in on the back of Arne Slot talking to him as well
But it is a strange thing to talk to the referee (then) because it’s normally after the game if they want to speak to him.”
Meanwhile, Walker would also ask Howe about Slot supposedly going to see Madley at the break, only for the Newcastle United manager to choose not to respond directly to the question.
“Eddie, can I ask you, there’s some talk that Arne Slot went to see the referee at half-time,” Walker said. “Did you know that happened? Were you aware of that? And what sort of difference can that make?”
Laughing at the question, Howe responded: “I don’t think I’ll go there because I think that’s a can of worms that I should not (open).”
Walker would then ask: “Is that a sort of conversation that you might have with a referee sometimes?” “
After a lengthy pause, Howe replied: “No, I tend to focus on my team. I don’t know what happened at half-time, I’ve got no idea.”
Then asked if he had gone to see Madley after the final whistle to query the timing of his full-time whistle, Howe admitted that he had.
Yeah, yeah,” he said. “He just said a simple explanation which you accept.”
