Shrewsbury Town manager Sam Ricketts admits his team “couldn’t get anywhere near” young Liverpool – but questioned the VAR decision that cost his side.
The Reds earned a deserved 1-0 triumph in their FA Cup fourth round replay over the League One side at Anfield on Tuesday night.
With Jurgen Klopp absent and his senior players on their winter break, under-23s coach took charge of the youngest team in Liverpool’s history with an average age of 19 years 102 days.
Ro-Shaun Williams scored the only goal of the game on 75 minutes when he headed a searching ball into his own net, deserved reward for an outstanding performance from Liverpool’s youngsters.
And Ricketts admitted: “We were far too passive over the game in general.
“We couldn’t get anywhere near them in the first half, they move the ball so quickly.
“There are a couple of real talented players there. The fact they are near the Liverpool first team now tells you all you need to know. They have got something special.
“But I feel for my players. They worked so hard to get here. We run a small squad of 19-20 players. It was game 39 so maybe we should have a winter break.
“It has been decided by an own goal which is disappointing. No blame attached to Ro-Shaun, he is a defender, he isn’t the first and won’t be the last (to do that).
“As a defender sometimes there are those horrible balls which you feel sometimes you need to head. Playing in front of the Kop, it is not a quiet stand so maybe the players couldn’t hear each other.
“The players are down because we knew we got nowhere near where we wanted to.
“Five, six, seven times the possibility was there to really hurt them and we didn’t."
Shrewsbury thought they had taken the lead through Shaun Whalley shortly before the hour, only for the goal to be disallowed for offside earlier in the move following a VAR check.
“VAR disallowing the goal changes the course of the game,” said Ricketts.
“I like VAR. The problem with VAR is it highlights rules so how far back do you go?
“I remember one here when Van Dijk handballed on the half-way line and that was okay.
“Someone needs to set a rule, you can only go back so far. The way I understand it, VAR was brought in for the Thierry Henry handball or real final actions.”
