Andoni Iraola says 'you have to dive' after Liverpool striker Alexander Isak denied penalty against Arsenal for Jurrien Timber shirt pull

Andoni Iraola has said he may have to start telling players to "dive" to earn penalties after Alexander Isak was not awarded a spot-kick when he stayed on his feet after having his shirt pulled in Liverpool's 1-0 defeat to Arsenal.

‘A clear penalty’ - Iraola bemoans decision not to award Isak spot-kick in Arsenal defeat

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The Gunners secured their first win at Anfield in 14 years and moved top of the Premier League thanks to a goal from Kai Havertz.

Liverpool were frustrated over two penalty calls which went against them - one when Cody Gakpo went down under a challenge from Christos Tzolis and another when Isak was pulled back by Jurrien Timber in the box as he went for a header.

Isak stayed on his feet despite being tugged and did not appear to even appeal for a penalty.

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However, speaking after the game, Liverpool manager Iraola told the BBC: "There is a clear grab [of] the shirt. Alex was just in front of him, he was going to head in front of the goal but couldn't because he had the shirt. I don't understand why they didn't call it, probably because he has not gone to the floor.

"I think the Gakpo one was not a penalty but the Alex one he was going to head the ball in front of the goalkeeper. He grabbed the shirt. I don't understand why it wasn't called.

"You have to dive, if you don't dive they won't call it."

Iraola added to Sky Sports: "That's the problem we have with the game. Because he doesn't dive and go to the floor. The fact that you are even asking me if he should go to the floor, if he goes to the floor, they call the penalty 100%.

"Now the manager should tell Alex, ‘Next time you have to go to the floor, otherwise they won’t call it'."

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk echoed his manager's comments, saying he thought the challenge on Isak was a "clear penalty".

"I've seen it back and I've seen it being given," Van Dijk said. "Today it wasn't meant to be.

"We have 50 cameras. Why does he [Isak] have to complain when there are so many cameras? Everyone has seen it. In the end it wasn't given and we lose the game unfortunately, so well done to Arsenal."

Defeat for Liverpool means they are fifth in the Premier League, nine points behind Arsenal.

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The hosts went closest to scoring when Florian Wirtz hit the crossbar but had few clear goalscoring opportunities throughout the match.

"We've put them under pressure, we've put them inside the box, we've put them there, but we haven't had the clarity to finish the situations better," said Iraola.

"I decided to finish with Rio [Ngumoha], with Victor [Munoz], even putting Dom [Szoboszlai], to see if we could maybe score from one shot outside the box, score in different ways. We had a lot of set-pieces and we were not able to score from there and they were very good defensively in the second half."

Liverpool next play Fenerbahce in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday, live with TNT Sports on HBO Max.

Fenerbahce will be led by former Liverpool player Dirk Kuyt, who is in interim charge of the team.

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