Iraola fumes over fourth official's three-minute subs board failure before Forest penalty

Andoni Iraola directed his post-match frustration at fourth official Tim Robinson after a substitution board malfunction delayed a triple Liverpool change for roughly three minutes — time in which Nottingham Forest won the penalty that briefly put them ahead at Anfield on Saturday.

Liverpool were held to a 2-2 draw by Forest in Iraola’s first home game in charge, twice coming from behind against Oliver Glasner’s side. Dan Ndoye opened the scoring before Alexander Isak equalised on the hour, but Morgan Gibbs-White converted from the spot to restore Forest’s lead ten minutes later. The penalty itself came after Alisson brought down Neco Williams, who had darted into the area from a quick Liam Delap throw-in.

Iraola, however, was keen to highlight what was happening on the touchline in the moments before that throw-in. “I will analyse the penalty, but a professional fourth official cannot take three minutes,” the Liverpool manager said. “We’ve already given the subs like two or three minutes before. I was already angry because in the previous stop in play, we couldn’t make it. And before the throw-in, I said, ‘Okay, we’ll do now’. I don’t know — they will have to explain it, but it has taken ages to prepare the subs.”

He elaborated further, saying Robinson appeared to be experiencing a technical problem with the electronic board. “He was having an issue with the board, I don’t know if it was not working, but we definitely wanted to do the subs the last two or three stoppages before the goal. It wasn’t just that reason for the penalty, but everything helps.”

The three changes — Kostas Tsimikas, Ryan Gravenberch and Rio Ngumha replacing Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong and Cody Gakpo — were eventually made after Gibbs-White’s spot-kick. Liverpool’s response came in the 82nd minute, when new signing Victor Munoz rifled home to earn his side a point.

Liverpool’s next fixture is away to Ipswich Town on Friday 4 September.