Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was furious at the treatment meted out to Mohamed Salah in the Reds’ 2-1 win over Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday.
The Egypt international limped off after a heavy challenge by Hamza Choudhury as time ran down at Anfield.
Leicester’s England Under-21 international was booked for the tackle, but Klopp thought the cynical nature of the foul, plus the fact that his star man was forced off, warranted stronger sanctions.
‘How can Mo be OK? How did he [Choudhury] only get a yellow card?’ Klopp told the BBC.
‘Mo limped off the pitch. That’s hard. It was done to slow Mo down and that is not OK.’
‘It’s just a challenge which I really don’t understand,’ Klopp added at his post-game press conference.
‘How he can do it, because the ball is far away. The player is full sprint to bring him down without the ball around, for me there is only one colour card.
‘I see in your eyes that I am probably the only one who sees it like this.
‘It is dangerous as hell. I don’t want to cause the boy [Choudhury] any problems but he has to calm down.
‘He has to calm down. This is not the first situation like this. Super player but these kind of challenges… no.
The Foxes caused Klopp’s men problems and almost ended their Premier League winning streak at 16.
When Salah was substituted the game was level at 1-1, with James Maddison’s goal in the 80th minute cancelling out Sadio Mane’s opener, his 50th goal for Liverpool.
Mane won a penalty in injury time which veteran James Milner converted to seal all three points for Klopp’s team.
Klopp thought the scoreline reflected the game and praised Milner’s cool.
‘The penalty was obviously a penalty,’ he told the BBC.
‘I am happy with how we played, we got the result, that is super. We knew it would probably happen, we knew we were going to fight for the win and we did.
‘Without luck we cannot win the amount of games we have won but over the 90 minutes, we deserved it, we deserved the three points.
‘James Milner held his nerve and that was superb.’