Furious pundit calls for ‘action’ after ‘totally ruined’ Everton-Liverpool derby amid criticism from Sean Dyche and Jordan Pickford
Sean Dyche and Jordan Pickford were right to call the referee in the Merseyside derby and Everton must now “demand action”, according to Michael Ball.
The former Toffees defender wrote on Twitter and then continued in his Liverpool Echo column on 23 October that Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Anfield was “utterly ruined” by referee Craig Pawson for not kicking the ball out Ibrahima Konate field after dismissing Ashley Young.
The Everton manager called the referee “impossible” after the match [BBC Sport, October 21], while the goalkeeper called it “arrogance” [Mirror, October 23] after controversial decisions went against them in another away match against their rivals, and a furious the ball doesn’t want the matter to move.
Ball wrote: “We never seem to make the decisions at Anfield and our players probably already know that. But that doesn’t make it right. Every 50/50 decision in the derby has gone in Liverpool’s favor and that seems to have been the case for years.
“I was happy that Dyche and Jordan Pickford presented the situation as it was after the match.
Referee Craig Pawson completely ruined what should have been a fantastic spectacle for neutrals and supporters of both teams.
“It’s so frustrating being a Blue because we knew things would probably be different on Saturday after Liverpool and Klopp called out the referees over their high-profile mistake by [Luis] Diaz in their defeat to Tottenham on last month. “
“You put your hands up when you’re beaten fairly, but I felt like that wasn’t the case because the ref had a say. For Konaté, it’s a second light yellow card.
If you want to be picky: [Kostas] Tsimikas committed three or four fouls in ten minutes in the first half and also escaped unscathed.
It felt like it was one rule for them and one for us.
“You don’t want favors from the referees, you just want them to be fair and do their job.
This never happened. “Everton and Sean Dyche will want to put this aside and focus on our next game against West Ham, but the club cannot allow it.
We should talk about the derby, but it’s still VAR and the officials.
“These are blatant and fundamental mistakes that are made again and again. In my opinion, the club must become stronger and demand responsibility.
This cannot continue like this because we are getting nowhere. We all expected improvement when Howard Webb joined the PGMOL, but things turned out to be regressive.
Fight fire with fire?
In an ideal world, those in charge would make the right decisions, or at least hold everyone to the same standards, and there would be no reason for anyone to make a fuss afterwards.
Of course, it wasn’t all one-way traffic, but Everton found themselves on the wrong end of more than their fair share of questionable decisions, often in high-profile matches.
And when the Toffees went into the derby with many fans worried that Liverpool’s numerous complaints about the VAR farce in their last defeat to Tottenham on September 30 would affect the refereeing of that match, it was d ‘all the more exasperating.
If it seems to have worked for them, the Everton hierarchy might as well do the same and make a splash if they don’t get too distracted by the machinations of the long takeover process.
It’s clear that no club should aim to influence referees from match to match, but if that’s the case, there’s no point in the Toffees sitting back and letting it all slide.
If anything, the more pressure placed on Webb and co, the greater the chance that something will be done about a standard of civil service that appears to be getting worse rather than better.
It must be said that the pressure on referees is clearly high and the abuse they increasingly receive at all levels cannot be excused, but uniformly applying the Laws of the Game is a fundamental aspect of the job and it certainly looked like this was not the case. the case. next weekend at Anfield.
