The Liverpool defender branded some of Everton’s tackling as “shocking”
In the wake of Saturday’s Merseyside derby, Andy Robertson criticised Everton’s “shocking challenges” and the performance of the match match officials.
The Liverpool defender saw his team draw 2-2 with neighbours Everton, although the Reds can consider themselves unlucky not to have left Goodison Park with all three points.
Everton were also fortunate not to have been reduced to nine men. Richarlison was sent off late on for a lunge on Thiago Alcantara, but a more controversial challenge came from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
The whistle had already been blown for offside when Pickford scythed down Virgil Van Dijk in the box. No action was taken, although Van Dijk now looks set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
"He could have easily been sent off."
"I'm very surprised it's just been forgotten about?"
Jordan Pickford's challenge on Virgil van Dijk did not look good 😬
Should VAR have stepped in after this? pic.twitter.com/wTcW6CHcIf
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 17, 2020
Speaking after the game to LFCTV, Andy Robertson said:
“When the lads came in at half-time they said it was a shocking challenge, so that’s two they’ve done us with today.
“I think it was already offside and they’d maybe called it, but for me it was the same as Richarlison’s. The whistle had already gone and he went flying in – it’s a red card.”
Robertson admitted it “didn’t look good” for Van Dijk’s injury prognosis, but hoped the scan would not look as bad as first feared.
In the dying moments of the match, Liverpool were denied what looked like a perfectly good third goal when Sadio Mane was harshly pulled back for offside.
Mane teed up Jordan Henderson to seemingly prod home the winner before officials ruled it out, much to Liverpool’s frustration.
This Jordan Henderson goal didn't count in the end after a controversial offside call…
But the no-look pass from Thiago to Mané deserved some love 👏 pic.twitter.com/b1kQaf4E9Q
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 17, 2020
Jordan Henderson had the ball in the Everton net in stoppage time…
But it was ruled for *this* offside call in the build-up 😳 pic.twitter.com/BJ2N2qc1jN
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 17, 2020
In his post-match interview, Andy Robertson again criticised the handling of VAR on the disallowed goal and failure to penalise Jordan Pickford.
“I looked when Thiago played the ball and I thought it could be offside, it couldn’t be, but Hendo’s just scored the winner in the derby so we thought ‘you can’t not celebrate it.’
“Then you just wait for the decision and obviously the ref took a long time, we knew it was going to be a close one, we know it’s sadly not going to go in our favour.”
