Alan Shearer slams ‘stupid’ Ashley Young after Everton incidents v Liverpool
Alan Shearer has hit out at both referee Craig Pawson and Everton defender Ashley Young, labelling the latter “stupid” for the challenge he made which saw him sent off in the Merseyside derby.
The former Newcastle striker criticised the referee for his decision not to send off Ibrahima Konate for taking Beto down when he would have been clear of the defender.
Shearer blames the pressure of refereeing the Merseyside derby at Anfield for the poor decision, raising questions about whether Pawson was the correct man to take on the responsibility.
Speaking on The Rest is Football podcast on 23 October, Shearer ranted: “Konate was very, very fortunate. Any other day I think another referee gives him another yellow card and he’s off.
“Ashley Young was correctly given two yellow cards, it was a stupid challenge when you’re on a yellow. But if the referee is doing that then he has to give Konate a second yellow card, he clearly wipes him out.
“He was under huge pressure, the referee at Anfield; derby game, big decision and he got it wrong for me.”
A big call, but one that should have been obvious
Any football fan could recognise that Everton were hardly going to be given favourable decisions at Anfield, especially in the wake of the controversy surrounding their defeat to Tottenham prior to the international break, but this decision looked a simple one to make.
As Beto ran past Konate, the Frenchman stepped across and wiped him out sending him sprawling, with no attempt made to play the ball.
Pawson was the only man in the ground who didn’t think it was a yellow card, and even Jurgen Klopp recognised it as he moved quickly to sub the defender off to avoid another incident.
The Anfield atmosphere likely did pressure the referee, but that’s something that simply cannot happen at such a high level and in such a high-stakes game. Plenty of backlash has emerged yet again, but the referees have done themselves no favours recently.
In other Everton news, Ally McCoist has also fumed at the incident live on air.