Liverpool and Brighton played one of the biggest Premier League matches of the weekend on Sunday afternoon.
Although the Reds fell early, they equalized after a good move, capped by Mohamed Salah.
From then on, Liverpool were the better team and managed to score their second goal from Salah’s penalty, when midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai had the back of his shirt torn off by Pascal Groß just before he could shoot brings. open-mouthed at his grace.
Salah commuted his sentence, so it’s all good, right? Not so fast.
That’s because Brighton equalized with a beautiful free kick from Solly March to Lewis Dunk, making the score 2-2.
The result of this match, a 2-2 draw, could have been VERY different if referee Anthony Taylor had made a different decision on the first-half penalty, in which Groß fouled Salah.
Groß inexplicably was not booked, despite him dragging Szoboszlai by the collar of his shirt without attempting to play the ball.
Szoboszlai would almost certainly have scored in that situation, so it was a deliberate foul by Groß with the intention of denying a scoring opportunity – or DOGSO.
The rule states that if a player rejects a scoring opportunity in the penalty area, it is a yellow card. However, if they thwart a scoring opportunity without attempting to play the ball, the offense is a red card.
In this case, Groß made no attempt to play the ball. He saw that Szoboszlai was about to score, he was behind Szoboszlai as the player was about to shoot, and so he shot at the attacker’s collar, maintaining contact until the player of Liverpool falls.
This may seem harsh as it wasn’t a dangerous tackle, but according to the law it should have been a red card and a completely different game for Brighton and Liverpool.
Without Groß on the pitch, Liverpool could have had more control and more momentum to finish the match and might never have conceded the 2-2 equalizer.
There needs to be more consistency in the way the Premier League is run. While other leagues follow their rules to the letter, Premier League officials make too many decisions for there to be no consistency.
In other leagues like the Bundesliga and even MLS, DOGSO is taken very seriously and is automatically red because it is unfair for defenders to drag attacking players to the ground in obvious scoring situations without any consequences.
The impact on the game is negative because it’s worth it for defenders to take risks and not even really defend.
Liverpool were not hit as badly as they were in the match against Tottenham. However, their fans should rightly complain about this poor decision from Taylor and the referees in charge of the match against Brighton.
It is at least incomprehensible that Groß was not even given a yellow card for denying an obvious scoring opportunity.
