Sean Dyche said he was completely baffled by referee Craig Pawson’s decision not to book Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konaté in today’s Merseyside derby for his trip on Beto.
The French defender was on a yellow card after going into the official’s notebook earlier in the second half but when he caught Everton’s Portuguese striker with an out-stretched leg, Pawson elected to only award a free-kick, waving away appeals for him to be sent off.
Had the referee booked Konaté again, it would have evened the teams up at 10 men apiece following Ashley Young’s sending off late in the first half for two bookable offences of his own.
As it was, Konaté was hastily substituted by Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool went on to win 2-0, with the decisive goal scored from the penalty spot by Mohamed Salah… but not before Pawson had been advised to go to the pitch-side monitor by Video Assistant Referee, David Coote, to overturn his own decision not to initially penalise Michael Keane for handball.
Dyche was booked himself during the match for protesting from the sidelines and afterwards, he expressed his frustration to the cameras.
“My take is: it is the bizarre nature of the modern game,” he said of Pawson’s decision not to show Konaté a second yellow. “How they have got 11 on the pitch at 0-0, no-one in the stadium knows…
“Their manager certainly didn’t know because he took off the player straight away because he realised.
“It changed the game quite obviously. That’s the way it goes. The whole stadium were like, ‘what’s going on there?’ Their manager is a fine judge and thought I’ll get him off. That’s the proof in itself.
“It was incredible to me; baffling. I don’t know how I got a yellow card for literally gesticulating like everyone else in the stadium. That is just ridiculous.
“The referee told me he didn’t feel it was a bookable offence. There are fair-minded people in football and they would be stunned it wasn’t a second yellow.
“I’ve seen the footage back and within a second the referee is saying ‘no chance, no chance’. If he’d given himself 10 seconds, you’d think that has to be a yellow.
“I shouldn’t get in trouble for saying that. We should be able to talk freely if the officials have an off-day.”
There was anger and frustration among Everton’s players as well after the game. Jordan Pickford did his best to allude to Pawson’s scandalous decision without incurring a fine while Jarrad Branthwaite, not normally outspoken because his more tender age, was also critical of the match official.
“We gave it our all, worked hard and decisions definitely didn’t go our way — no shock there,” Pickford said before being asked which decisions he was referring to.
“It’s not rocket science to work it out,” the keeper replied. “I think the whole world will know. We can’t comment too much because you will just get done anyway. A bit of dialogue would be nice and less arrogance would be nice as well.”
Branthwaite said: “Beto went past Konaté who is on a yellow already. He takes him down and it’s clear. I don’t know how it’s not a second yellow card.
“He’s gone right through the middle of the pitch; it’s one v one; it’s a blatant yellow but he hasn’t given it so we can’t do anything about that now. That’s the problem, there’s no consistency throughout the refereeing.
“If he gets sent off, it’s back to a level playing field and probably a different game but we’re down to 10 men and against it all game because of the decision he hasn’t given to award the second yellow for Konaté and we’re up against it for the rest of the match.”
The condemnation continued in the media as well, with ex-referee Mike Dean saying on Sky Sports:
“I think it is a second yellow, I do. Consistency-wise, you send off a player for two fouls in the first half, so you have to be consistent. He has done two in the space of 10 minutes.
“I guarantee you [Pawson] will get substituted.”
Former Liverpool defender turned pundit Stephen Warnock was even more forthright, telling BBC Radio that, “It should be level, ten men each.
“It is terrible from the referee; a really cynical challenge from Konate. Already on a yellow and tugs back Beto’s shirt.
“A stinker of a decision.”