Andoni Iraola pleads innocence as Bournemouth boss explains 'misunderstanding' with referee that got him booked and facing touchline ban

The Cherries suffered a thrashing defeat at Anfield in the Premier League on Saturday as Liverpool rode on Luis Diaz's brace and Darwin Nunez's strike to register a 3-0 victory. During the game, Bournemouth boss Iraola was booked for a touchline protest which has led to him being suspended for the club's next league clash.

After the game, the Spaniard explained how a 'misunderstanding' with referee Tony Harrington led to his wrongful booking. The 42-year-old claimed that Harrington thought that he was demanding a yellow card for one of Arne Slot's men, while in reality he was only pointing out that Darwin Nunez was in an offside position before closing in on his defender Milos Kerkez.

Speaking to BBC after the match, the manager said: "There has been a misunderstanding. They booked me because I asked for a yellow card, and I was asking just for offside. They [the players] haven’t done one foul, nothing, to ask for a yellow card. He told me: ‘You cannot ask for a yellow card’.

"I asked for an offside because he doesn’t go for the ball but after he goes to press, Darwin, from the offside position, and we have to play back to the keeper. I think the referee doesn’t want to stop it, he leaves it go, but it is bad for us, you know? It’s not an advantage for us and I was asking: ‘No, no, it’s offside, give us the offside’, that’s what I was asking. He told me straight away: ‘You cannot ask for a yellow card’. I know, already, I have paid my price in the season before, I know I cannot do this, but I hope we can overturn it."

The former Rayo Vallecano boss was earlier booked against Chelsea and Newcastle. Having been cautioned thrice now, Iraola won't be allowed to sit in the Cherries' dugout in their next Premier League outing against Southampton on September 30.