Sean Dyche ‘flummoxed’ by Ibrahima Konate decision in Everton defeat to Liverpool
Sean Dyche was left baffled by Craig Pawson’s decision to not send off Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate in the the second half of the Reds’ win over Everton.
Jurgen Klopp’s side came out on top in the first Merseyside derby of the season, thanks to two second-half goals from Mohammed Salah, after Ashley Young received a second yellow card after only 37 minutes to see the Toffees reduced to 10 men.
While Dyche had little complaints over the decision to give the 38-year-old defender his marching orders, the Everton boss was left confused as to why referee Pawson didn’t give Konate a deserved second yellow for a foul just after the hour mark.
Speaking on talkSport (21 October, 14:53) he said: “I think it’s a near impossibility how he wasn’t sent off in the modern game, I’ll go and see the referee and find out how he wasn’t. I don’t really, ideally, want to be talking about officials on a day like today, but I think we’ve got no choice.
“I’m flummoxed by a lot of decisions today but that one is, I mean I don’t know how you pick the bones out of that one, to be honest, other than the fact it’s clearly a sending-off. Their manager clearly agreed by how quickly he tried to take him off.
“Games like this shouldn’t be about officials, they should be about performances, two teams gave it their all. It’s a shame that it’s ruined today by a simple decision.”
Simple decision
It’s hard to disagree with Dyche’s frustration as it was baffling how Pawson deemed Young’s foul worthy of a second yellow but didn’t believe that Konate had done enough to warrant being sent off, even though it was almost the same incident.
As Dyche pointed out, big matches like the Merseyside derby should be decided by individual performances rather than errors by officials and it is hard to argue that Pawson’s decision-making at Anfield didn’t play a huge part in the result on Saturday.
Given the fallout from Liverpool’s disallowed goal against Tottenham before the international break, it would be interesting to hear how the referee justified his decision as it seemed to be a simple second yellow, especially given how quickly a card was brandished to Young.
This is becoming a problem week in and week out at all levels of football and something needs to change sooner rather than later, otherwise more major fixtures are going to be marred just like the Toffees’ defeat at Anfield.
In other Everton news, legal letters have been sent after the Toffees allegedly failed to pay agent fees