Arne Slot has revealed why he took off Ibrahima Konate in Liverpool’s win over Wolves.
Konate was withdrawn at the half-time interval of Sunday’s Premier League encounter at Anfield as the hosts consolidated their seven-point advantage.
The France international picked up a booking midway through the first half for pulling back Matheus Cunha on the halfway line before kicking the ball away.
But he risked an early dismissal for a repeat offence on the visitors’ talisman which saw referee Simon Hooper ignore several appeals to send him off.
Slot replaced Konate with fellow centre-back Jarell Quansah at the start of the second half and confirmed that it was a move driven entirely by precaution.
He said: “I took him off because of that. I saw him getting his first yellow – that for me was a soft yellow.
“If he got his second one for a shoulder push that would have again been a soft yellow so he would have been sent off for two soft yellows.
“I think the referee felt the same and that’s why he didn’t [book him again].
“But I’ve watched football so many times in my life and I know that a player and the referee is then under pressure. So the next foul will lead to a referee thinking that maybe he should give it.
“It is so difficult to play 45 minutes against a strong Wolves team so I had to take Ibou off because you can’t play football knowing in your head you can’t make a foul against such good players as Wolves have.”