Keith Hackett tells Frank Lampard his players need rules advice after Everton reds v Brentford
Former referees chief Keith Hackett has responded to Frank Lampard’s comments after Everton lost to Brentford on Sunday (15 May).
The Toffees boss said the first of two red cards on the day, for defender Jarrad Branthwaite, completely changed the game in the 3-2 loss at Goodison Park.
The sending off came with the home side 1-0 up and immediately after Richarlison had been denied a penalty despite his shirt being pulled in the area.
Salomon Rondon was the sent off late on for a two-footed lunge on Rico Henry near the touchline, and Hackett believes the two Toffees who were punished only have themselves to blame.
The former head of the PGMOL responded on his Twitter page to Lampard’s post-match interview on Sky Sports, saying: “Frank your players need some operational advice on the Laws of the game. They were avoidable red cards.”
Mitigating circumstances
The Toffees are no strangers to controversy in the refereeing department this season, and Sunday’s game was no different.
The fact is that both of the red cards the home side received were probably fair, and Michael Oliver did award them a penalty in the game.
But Lampard wasn’t actually arguing with the two red card decisions in themselves, but the fact that the first one should have been negated by the shirt pulling from Kristoffer Ajer immediately prior.
Had they been awarded a penalty for that, they may have been 2-0 up and still with 11 players, which would have given them a much stronger chance of winning than going down to 10 while 1-0 up.
Everything after that point is hypothetical, and Rondon’s late red had little affect on the result, but the second key juncture that went against the Toffees was with the penalty they were awarded.
Despite being a man down Richarlison put them ahead for a second time just before the break, but Oliver opted not to show Mads Bech a second yellow for the foul.
It is certainly less clear cut than the earlier foul that was missed but again, a lead with both sides down to 10 would have made it easier to close out the result than continuing to play with a man less.
This second decision arguably only comes into focus because of the other controversies, and because the home side did receive two reds.
But Hackett’s response to Lampard misses the thrust of his complaint. Clearly a last-man foul when on the wrong side is just an error, and the late lunge an obvious loss of composure, but arguably neither situation even comes to pass had the original foul on Richarlison been given.
He also had hold of Ajer’s shirt but to nowhere near the same degree, and it isn’t hard to imagine it being given if it had happened a matter of feet away outside the area.
In other Everton news, the club are tracking a player that the manager “personally admires” to replace a veteran first-team player in the summer.
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