Andoni Iraola: We have to tell players to dive for penalties
· Yahoo Sports
Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola says he will urge his players to dive in future after Alexander Isak was refused a penalty in Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Arsenal.
The Liverpool striker’s shirt was pulled by Jurrien Timber as he leapt to reach a cross into the box during the first half of the Premier League encounter at Anfield.
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Isak did not go to ground and referee Andy Madley gave nothing. VAR Stuart Attwell also saw no reason to overturn the decision.
Asked if players should go down, Iraola said: “It’s a shame you ask me this question, but honestly, yes, we have to tell them, go down, because they’re not going to call it otherwise.
“And then referees complain why they go down. Because if you don’t go down, you don’t call it. Then it’s like, no, you are all the time going down.
“But I think Alex is honest. He tries to go for the ball, everyone can see live straight away there is a clear, clear pull.”
He added in a BBC interview: “The answer is you have to dive. If you don’t dive they are not going to call it.”
The incident occurred soon after Arsenal had taken the lead in the 16th minute as Kai Havertz benefited from an Alisson Becker error.
Liverpool went on to dominate for large spells but could not break Arsenal’s resilience.
Florian Wirtz did hit the bar from a free-kick and Cody Gakpo also had a penalty appeal turned down after a tussle with Christos Tzolis but Iraola was less concerned about that decision.
He said: “The Gakpo one, I think it’s a sustained holding but I understand their argument and I think they are right that they say the ball was too long and Cody wouldn’t have arrived to the ball.
“I think we have to blame the start of the game. Until we conceded the goal, (we were not) at the level of the rest of the game. But from 1-0, I loved the reaction of the team.”
Arsenal’s victory was their first at Anfield in the league for 14 years and took them to the top of the table.