David Maddock rages at ‘clueless’ Everton controversy v Liverpool in newspaper column
David Maddock has raged at the “clueless” officiating on Saturday when Everton faced Liverpool in the Merseyside derby.
Writing in his newspaper column in the Sunday Mirror (22 October, pg 69), Maddock claimed referee Craig Pawson lacked the authority to handle a clash of this significance after giving VAR too much influence on the game.
Everton suffered a 2-0 defeat to the Reds amid many controversies, including Michael Keane’s handball, Ashley Young’s second yellow card and Ibrahima Konate’s lack of red card.
Maddock wrote: “Craig Pawson is not a terrible referee. He appears to have a reasonable understanding of the game, certainly better than many of his brethren, and has a reasonable rapport with players and managers, which is crucial.
“Yet there were decisions here – or rather a total lack of them – which made him look clueless and totally devoid of that authority which any official must command to have any chance of officiating an encounter of this importance.”
Frustration
While a result was not expected from Everton, the nature of their defeat will be a cause of huge frustration.
Maddock noted in his column that, once again, the football is not the main talking point from this historical encounter, but rather the lacklustre officiating and controversial usage of VAR.
Keane’s handball was definitely a handball. Even the away fans would have known this while VAR spent all its time making an obvious decision. The ball took a bit of a deflection on its way into the box from Luis Diaz, but Keane’s outstretched arm was plain to see.
Young’s second yellow was controversial too, with Pawson seemingly waiting for confirmation from his earpiece on whether to brandish the card. Young’s initial booking was rather soft and both fouls combined, given the context of the challenges, did not warrant a dismissal.
From then, Everton were on the back foot and had to dig deep to get anything from the game. The defence was strong and Sean Dyche’s men should be praised, but Liverpool’s attacking threat predictably prevailed.
A Mohamed Salah brace sealed the Toffees’ fate, but they did not look hopeless at any stage of the match, just the lack of bodies on the pitch hampered the chance of a counter-attack.
Refereeing has always been controversial and never perfect, but VAR decisions seem to dominate the headlines after the weekend’s action for all the wrong reasons.
In other Everton news, a Goodison Park star may never start for Sean Dyche again after what he did in the Merseyside derby.