Garth Crooks livid at officials after ‘Cynical’ moment in Everton 2-0 loss v Liverpool
Garth Crooks has labelled Ibrahima Konate’s challenge on Beto as “cynical” and questioned why he wasn’t sent off as Everton were beaten by Liverpool.
The Merseyside derby was hanging in the balance with the Toffees 1-0 down and a man down thanks to Ashley Young’s first half red card, but Konate didn’t get the same treatment despite scything down the striker on the halfway line to prevent a breakaway.
And BBC pundit Crooks, writing in his team of the week column on BBC Sport (24 October), admitted that he felt the challenge was “cynical and crude”.
“Was Everton’s Ashley Young’s sending off for a second bookable offence really necessary? If it was then Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate had to go,” he said.
“Young’s tackle was a genuine one to try and win the ball. Konate’s challenge on Beto was cynical and crude and what the yellow card was designed for but the Liverpool defender didn’t receive one for the challenge in question.”
Crazy
Liverpool were the better team on the day and a defeat was a fair result on the balance of play, but this could have been a complete game-changer.
At 1-0 and with momentum on our side Konate made absolutely no attempt to play the ball and took Beto out on the halfway line for what should have been a second yellow card.
After all the VAR issues that they have had, the only explanation for it is that officials are now scared to go against them – especially at Anfield – and it cost us the chance of a fair game and potentially getting a result.
Had it been the other way around we would never have heard the end of it, but because it’s little old Everton and we’re in a relegation battle it won’t be spoken about nearly enough.
It was an unacceptable decision and now we just have to hope that it doesn’t come back to bite us in May when our Premier League status gets decided.
In other Everton news, eight first-team players could leave as club face major FFP charges.