The has confirmed a change in referee for 's game against Newcastle in the Premier League.

Just hours before kick-off, there's been a shift in the officiating team. Initially, Chris Kavanagh was slated to oversee the match, but it's been confirmed that Stuart Attwell will be the man in the middle instead.

Originally assigned to West Ham United's game against Leicester, Attwell has been replaced by Anthony Taylor for that game. The rest of the officiating team for Liverpool vs Newcastle remains unchanged, with Simon Bennett and Dan Robathan as assistants, Darren Bond as the fourth official, Matt Donohue as the VAR, and Wade Smith as the assistant VAR.

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No reason for the referee switch has been given. Liverpool fans will hope for less controversy than the last time Attwell refereed one of the Reds' games, when Arne Slot was left fuming over his failure to send off Tottenham's Lucas Bergvall in the Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg.

Arne Slot was critical of Attwell after the match, saying: "I don't think there's any debate about that," in reference to the call made during the match.

Bergvall went on to score the winning goal, and Slot added: "The next discussion is, was it reckless enough to give advantage and come back and say the tackle was still too reckless and then give a yellow? When he (the referee) didn't give the second yellow nobody thought it would have such a big impact 30 seconds later.

"I haven't asked him, but I'm 99.9% sure I wasn't the only one who felt 'wow, not the best'. I'm 99.9% sure when Bergvall scored the referee thought 'oh, is this really happening?' because he couldn't change it anymore. I think for him it was also far from ideal."

Slot won't get the opportunity for a debrief with match official Attwell following the game against Newcastle after he was slapped with a two-match touchline ban as punishment for his sending-off against Everton two weeks ago.