Source: Telegraph
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez cannot resist referee rant after defeat to Tottenham
Benitez was left fuming by late decisions in the 2-1 defeat at Tottenham, believing that Liverpool were deprived of at least one penalty, and possibly two. He was also unhappy with the late dismissal from the bench of coach Sammy Lee, after he vented his anger at the decisions.
Asked about Dowd, Benítez remained silent, but took out his glasses and peered from a distance through the lenses, making it abundantly clear that he felt the Staffordshire official needed a visual aid.
Benítez said: "We had a meeting the other day, they said we cannot speak about the referees as a person, about the decisions, but everybody could see today the situation."
Having awarded one penalty to Liverpool, Dowd rejected late appeals, firstly when Benoît Assou-Ekotto leaned into Andrei Voronin, and when the same Spurs defender appeared to handle Fernando Torres's cross.
"I think everyone could see there was a penalty, especially to Voronin," added Benítez. "The third one, you could excuse, you can say that the hand was to the ball or the ball was to the hand. But the other one was so clear that it was unbelievable."
Asked if it was possible to win two penalties away from home, Benítez added: "No, with this referee I knew that this was impossible."
Benítez then turned his attentions to Attwell, who had brought to Dowd's attention the actions of an irate Lee, leading the referee to send the former England coach to the dressing room. Regarding Lee's dismissal, Benítez said: "The fourth official is too young. I don't know how old he is but maybe he needs to calm down a bit."
Benítez was honest about his side's disappointing performance. "We didn't play well. Clearly we have to improve," he said.
Benítez refused to use the £30 million departure of Xabi Alonso as an excuse, adding: "We won a lot of games last year without him."
Spurs manager Harry Redknapp, who claimed Dowd was right not to award Voronin a penalty, said: "We need to go to Hull on Wednesday and do it all again. We have to prove this season that we can play away from White Hart Lane as well, on a more consistent basis."
