Sky Sports pundit rages at Everton’s Anthony Gordon ‘diver’ tag, accuses Liverpool star instead
We’re delighted to welcome former Everton striker Kevin Campbell as our exclusive columnist. Each week the former Toffees captain will be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Goodison Park…
Kevin Campbell believes it is outrageous for Everton winger Anthony Gordon to be accused of being a diver following the Merseyside derby.
The young Toffee was booked for simulation in the first half at Anfield, and had another penalty turned down in the second half by referee Stuart Attwell.
Sky Sports pundit Campbell was in the studio for the game, and is still furious at the decision to wave away claims after Gordon was brought down by Joel Matip, pointing the finger at a member of the opposition instead.
“I think all this diver nonsense, I don’t know where people are getting it,” he exclusively told Goodison News.
“[Gordon’s] a player who plays on the edge. There’s one specific player in that Liverpool team who has got that tag but nobody says anything when he does it.
“So how can it be good for one but not good for the other?
“The fact of the matter is, these players who can dribble past players or use their speed to get past, you put a body on them, or an arm on them, then they are travelling that quick they go over.
“Now fair enough, the one in the first half, there was contact but it wasn’t enough. But it wasn’t a dive.
“But that second one in the second half, that’s a penalty all day long. That’s one where again the referee bottled it.
“And if anybody could watch it again, where Gordon strides across Matip, Matip makes contact with his foot as well as pushed him. That’s a penalty!
“But again, the referee bottled it. He totally bottled it.
“Now if it was a dive, and this is the most important thing, if it was a dive the referee’s got to send him off. And I said that in the [Sky Sports matchday] studio, if that is a dive the referee’s got to send him off.
“But the referee bottled it because he didn’t even make a decision, he just didn’t do anything. That’s the worst case of all, calling him a diver.
“The ref’s got to send him off! So if he doesn’t send him off that isn’t a dive! It’s a penalty. It’s one or the other.
“And as for VAR, I give up. I give up. Honestly, I give up. What’s the point in having it if these decisions don’t get looked at and the correct decision made?
“And I know some of them you get, some of them you don’t. But what’s the point in having all this of the referee getting help from VAR if they aren’t even going to look at it? It makes no sense. It’s a nightmare at the minute.”
The Toffees were on the wrong end of contentious refereeing once again at Anfield, and slipped further into the relegation mire as a result.
They received an apology from Mike Riley before when Rodri’s handball wasn’t penalised against Manchester City.
But apologies don’t equal points, and that is what Frank Lampard badly needs, but there are proving doubly hard to come by when the officiating continues to be so inconsistent.
In other Everton news, one Liverpool legend thinks an Everton player was “trembling in his boots” at the thought of facing a Reds man.
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