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After the Fulham defender appeared to put his hands to his face after being caught by Palace’s Justin Devenny’s stray arm, referee Tony Harrington asked the player to leave the field for treatment.

Cuenca walked off the pitch before the game even started because he was unhappy with the referee’s decision.

Cuenca was waiting on the touchline when Oliver Glasner’s side took the lead with a header from Jean-Philippe Mateta a short while later.

Before the 2024-25 season, Premier League rules mandated that a player must remain on the field for at least 30 seconds after the game has finished.

When the game was completely under control, we conceded a goal, according to Silva, who firmly believes that we should have been playing with just 10 men at the time.

“Football is to be played 11 against 11,” the statement read. When it’s not necessary, we can’t be calling the medical stuff constantly.

The rules for treating suspected head injuries were changed before the start of the current season to read:

The official will immediately request a doctor or physio to enter the pitch in order to promote player welfare when a player has a suspected head injury and the referee stops the game. The player must leave the pitch after the game has finished for a final evaluation and remain on the touchline for at least 30 seconds.

The rules were developed in accordance with professional game match officials Limited (PGMOL), according to Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer, at a pre-season briefing.

This year, we’ve said that a player typically develops head injuries when they go down holding their head, according to Webb.

We’ll immediately get the doctor or physio on if the referee decides to stop the game primarily because there are concerns about it being a head injury or potential head.

There was a feeling that too frequently, players were falling down holding their heads, in addition to “we want to make sure the player gets assistance if they have a genuine head injury.” The player was fine, but the game was then being cut short as a result.

Since December 2023 when Liverpool played Manchester United, that scoreline was the first to result in a draw at 0-0 under Arne Slot in all 117 games.

Slot’s side extended their unbeaten run to eight games and Liverpool was still unbeaten. However, it revealed a fanbase venting their frustrations following a largely uninteresting display.

This season, Liverpool have been a difficult football team to watch far too often.

The Jurgen Klopp era and Slot’s victory in his first year at Anfield have been overshadowed by the club’s fans over the past decade, not to mention the club’s fans.

Although the standards are extremely high and appropriate for a club of this size, Liverpool looked unoriginal and lacking in quality against a Leeds side that was promoted to the Premier League last year.

There were few moments that made the fans get off their seats, aside from Jeremie Frimpong, who had the ease to move past some of the Leeds players.

Liverpool, Slot, or the Anfield faithful would not have anticipated the start of the new year.

In our live text, a BBC Sport reader summed up the fanfare’s emotions.

According to Jan from Rye, “Liverpool still appears to have a piece missing.”

After the game, Leeds manager Daniel Farke suggested that a key component of his tactical plan was to allow Liverpool to take control of the wings while closing the pitch’s center. It was a successful approach to serving the visitors.

Only four of Liverpool’s chances were on target, out of 19 total.

Since April 2024 (2. 8 against Crystal Palace), the Reds have scored the most goals (1.96) without scoring in a Premier League game at Anfield (1. 9).

When asked what the performance of his team was lacking, Slot responded, “A goal. The answer is the easiest.

The league possession of the ball means nothing if you can’t create enough chances and chances against a low block, but we are the team that does. We witnessed a team that tried their hardest, but we couldn’t find an opening.

In the first half, Hugo Ekitike missed a chance to give Liverpool’s best chance, but in fairness, the ball came at a serious pace from Frimpong’s cross over goal.

Daniel Sturridge, a former Liverpool player, claimed Slot’s side appeared worn out by the recent schedule.

They “seemed tired if you asked me,” said Sruire. That precision and movement were lacking.

Ekitike’s persistence in the box, which was the focal point of Slot’s post-match reflections, made it regrettable that he did not receive a penalty.

Although it would have likely been a penalty if he had fallen, Slot claimed that this season, we have been fouled so many times that we have not received one.

Our players try to stay on our feet while the VAR struggles to interfere because this season we have conceded a few soft penalties but Brentford won with Cody Gakpo, the referee saying, “play on.”

And Slot asserted that he would never encourage the players to descend.

The Dutch manager said, “We keep doing the same things.” I don’t believe in the idea that you get what you deserve over the course of a season, but after two, three, and four seasons, I do.

It is surprising that we only had one penalty this year for the team with the most ball possession, in my opinion.

“But I wouldn’t say I was encouraging them to do that,” I said. We simply exist. We maintain our momentum.

In some ways, Slot has done a lot of good, but sooner or later he needs to realize that his side cannot continue to perform this way.