Arne Slot admits Liverpool 'frustration' at Man Utd decision after Marc Guehi incident

Arne Slot has admitted that Liverpool has been left frustrated after Maxence Lacroix was sent off against Manchester United; Marc Guehi received a booking in a similar incident against the Reds

Mohamed Salah was denied a penalty during the first half of Liverpool's game against Manchester City(Image: Getty Images)

Arne Slot has admitted there is a sense of frustration with officials after Maxence Lacroix was sent off during Crystal Palace's game against Manchester United in a similar incident to one in which Marc Guehi received a yellow card against Liverpool.

The Manchester City defender was deemed to have pulled Mohamed Salah’s shirt just outside the penalty area, bringing the Egyptian to ground and stopping him from latching onto Dominik Szoboszlai’s through pass, which could have led to a shooting chance.

Pawson issued Guehi a yellow card, a decision that was reviewed and upheld by VAR. Ruben Dias’ positioning and movement toward the ball played a key role in the assessment, with officials ruling that Guehi had not denied Salah a clear goalscoring opportunity. At the time, Dermot Gallagher agreed with the decision to just caution the England international.

Crystal Palace held a 1-0 advantage at Old Trafford after an early strike from Lacroix, but the defender’s afternoon took a sharp turn. Lacroix made a last-ditch grab at Matheus Cunha's shoulder and continued to hold on.

Referee Chris Kavanagh initially pointed to the spot before consulting the VAR monitor to review the challenge, ultimately deciding to dismiss the Palace center-back for a "clear and obvious denial of a goalscoring opportunity."

United went on to win the game 2-1.

Maxence Lacroix was sent off after a challenge on Matheus Cunha(Image: 2026 Getty Images)

When asked in the Wolves pre-match press conference whether the incidents were comparable, Slot said: "Very comparable.

"The only difference is that Mo was pulled by the shirt and the Palace one was by the shoulder. I see a similar distance and maybe the distance between Guehi and Dias was even bigger than Palace's two center-backs.

"When I saw it live, I didn't think the VAR would give a red card. This is what I hold against VAR. In both situations, you are expecting VAR interference as the referee didn't give a red card. But only one of those he overturned it.

"For me, either one of the two is a mistake. I wasn't surprised it was a red card because to me, it was a red card for Guehi too. I wasn't backed up by everyone. The panel said the correct decision was made."

"There is a frustration because it isn't the first time," added the Dutchman. "I would like to remember the goal disallowed at City before the exact same thing was allowed against Forest. We have to make sure we don't depend on these decisions."

Liverpool will again be without Florian Wirtz for their trip to Wolves after the midfielder missed the last two Premier League games with a back issue. Slot confirmed the German is still not ready to return.

Wirtz's absence was felt at Anfield last weekend despite the victory and the Reds must cope without him once more. "The game probably comes too soon tomorrow and maybe the game at the weekend," Slot said. "We hope to have him back next week."

Not having the German against West Ham limited the Reds, which struggled to create chances from open play, forcing Slot's side to rely heavily on set-pieces.

"Things went back to normal, mainly because I just said that we’ve created quite a lot of chances in the first half of the season that constantly did not go in, or too many times did not go in with being unlucky," Slot said on Saturday.