Dermot Gallagher believes that the officials got one big call wrong during Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The Reds were trailing 1-0 with 15 minutes of normal time remaining when Jordan Ayew – who’d previously been booked – was shown a second yellow card for impeding Harvey Elliott on the halfway line.
Speaking on Sky Sports News‘ Ref Watch segment on Monday morning, the former Premier League referee believes that the Ghanaian’s foul wasn’t worthy of the second booking which saw him depart prematurely.
When asked if there was enough on it to warrant a yellow card, Gallagher replied: “I thought not. All I can think is the referee thinks Ayew is breaking a promising attack, which he’s not.”
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Taking the incident in isolation, Ayew knew he was doing in tripping Elliott, and it probably warranted a yellow card in and of itself.
However, the first booking Andy Madley had shown to the 32-year-old – for stopping Virgil van Dijk from taking a quick free kick – was harsh, so the referee had made a rod for his own back by the time the Palace attacker committed the offence which saw him given his marching orders.
Neither incident seemed like much to merit him being sent off – even combined they were no worse than Cristian Romero’s stamp on Callum Wilson yesterday, which saw the Tottenham defender shown yellow rather than red.
Some may argue that, having already booked him, the referee could’ve let Ayew off with a final warning for the foul on Elliott, although then he might’ve faced questions as to why he didn’t give a yellow card which would’ve been warranted more than the first one he’d shown.
The rights and wrongs may continue to be discussed, but what’s beyond doubt is that the Ghanaian’s dismissal was a turning point on Saturday, with Liverpool seizing upon the one-player advantage to score twice and salvage victory from the jaws of defeat.
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The yellows were probably harsh. But Ayew is a cheat so I have no sympathy. He always tries to win free kicks for the slightest touch and he’s been doing it for years. I don’t think him being off the pitch had much of a bearing on the first goal. Palace hadn’t, up until the corner which we scored from, made an error but they did then and Liverpool captitalised. Liverpool didn’t play badly. Palace defended superbly. There is a difference. They scored from a penalty. They only caused us problems on the break. Liverpool were knocking the ball around ok but just couldn’t find that pass to cut Palace open.
I was going to post something similar. Ayew is always moaning and niggling and so I think he’s made the yellows for himself. At the end of the day all he has to do is step away from the freekick and it’s not an issue and the 2nd foul, while soft would probably have been a yellow after the other niggling he’d done thru the game
But as far as I could see there was no contact with the boot and the first yellow card was incorrect because the foul was committed about 10 yards behind where Van Dyke was trying to take the freekick from. I’m really surprised no one has mentioned this but I guess it’s to save the ref any embarrassment and actually highlight how bad he was.
Not sure what Gallagher is referring to? It was pretty clear Elliott was attempting to pass the ball onto Gomez who had no one in front of him following the turnover. If that’s not the definition of a breakaway leading to a promising attack, I don’t know what is.
The first booking followed ayew doing the same blocking TWO MINUTES BEFORE!
The second booking as Dale says above stopped a pass to a totally free Gomez. Bang on booking!
Thirdly he is shit. So sending him off is the correct decision.