Wolves boss Vitor Pereira insists Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate ought to have been despatched off earlier than he was substituted at half-time in nervy victory

Wolves boss Vitor Pereira fumed Ibrahima Konate should have been sent off as Liverpool recorded a nail-biting 2-1 win at Anfield to keep up their seven-point lead atop the Premier League. 

French defender Konate had been shown a yellow card after half an hour for tugging back Matheus Cunha when he was on the counter-attack and then committed a foul on the same player minutes later that could have resulted in a second yellow.

Pereira thought it was a pivotal moment in the match, especially given his team piled on the pressure in search of a late equaliser. Cunha reduced Wolves’ deficit to one after Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah had put Liverpool two goals up in the first half.

‘I am not the referee but yes for me,’ said Pereira. ‘What I say now will not change anything but in my opinion the second yellow card should be shown.’

The Portuguese was also booked for descent and he said: ‘I don’t know (why I was carded), maybe because I am emotional when I am competing, I am not watching a movie on the sofa. I am there to compete, we must understand the emotional side of the game.

‘It was not disrespectful in my opinion, I must have said but I am trying to accept a lot of decisions today. We must play the first half as we played the second half, this is what I want to see in my team – the personality, courage and identity. Wolves woke up at half time.’

Wolves manager Vitor Pereira has insisted Ibrahima Konate should have been given a second yellow card 

The Liverpool defender was already booked after a previous tackle against Matheus Cunha

Liverpool manager Arne Slot has admitted that the risk of Konate receiving a second yellow card forced him to make a substitution

Liverpool boss Arne Slot added: ‘I took (Konate) off because of that. I saw him getting his first yellow – that for me was a soft yellow. If he had gotten 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, 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 every next foul will lead again to maybe a referee that thinks maybe he should give it.

‘So I had to take him off because you can’t play football knowing in your head you can’t make a foul against such good players as Wolves have.’

On the nerves, Slot said: ‘I don’t think the nerves were too much, it had to do with how Wolves came out and Wednesday we showed immense mentality in the most difficult circumstances we faced this season.

‘And then going 2-1 up and playing the last 10, 15 minutes with the way we played with all the things that happened in those 15, 20 minutes and to come out with a draw was very, very hard to take.

‘That’s why these wins are probably even more important than when you out-play Tottenham like we did here two weeks ago for 4-0. It is so difficult to win a game of football – people always feel like “Ah, you have got Mo Salah, what are you talking about, he will always score a goal”.

‘No, it is so difficult to win a game of football every three days after everything you go through in a season which is why this win is an important one going into a tough week where we hope we can show the same mentality against both teams but play better on the ball.’