21 October 2023 , 14:20
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Sean Dyche hit out at officiating decisions that he felt went against Everton during their Merseyside derby defeat against Liverpool.
The Reds ran out two-goal victors but the game itself was defined by officiating decisions which the visitors believed all went against them. Ashley Young was sent off for the visitors before half-time following two yellow cards.
Young, who was struggling in the right-back role against Luis Diaz, was dismissed following two yellow cards in the first half. While both decisions appeared to be cautionable offences, there was a sense of surprise that Young was not given any final warnings as he made just two fouls during the game.
The visitors were left furious in the second half when Reds defender Ibrahima Konate, who had already been cautioned, escaped a second yellow card with a cynical foul on the halfway line as Everton attempted to break up the pitch on a counter-attack.
Liverpool were then awarded a spot kick with less than twenty minutes remaining that allowed them to break the deadlock. Michael Keane’s outstretched arm blocked Diaz’s delivery from reaching a dangerous area of the box, with a penalty awarded following a VAR intervention.
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Referee Craig Pawson decided that a spot-kick was the correct decision, with Mohamed Salah duly converting to open the scoring. The Egyptian superstar added a second in injury time to wrap up the victory in a scrappy encounter at Anfield.
Dyche told TNT Sports after the match when speaking on the Konate dismissal: “Their manager took him off the pitch straight away. Everyone in the stadium knew it was a red card.”
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Young was shown an early red card for Everton (Getty Images)Speaking of the early Young red card, the Everton boss said: “The problem is how do you judge that? Their player does not get booked for a similar foul and Young was booked twice for the same thing. I was given a yellow card for asking a question on it.
“The whole stadium was like ‘what is going on there’ with the Konate challenge. Their manager knew it and that is obvious from the immediate substitution. Those decisions are tough to take. They are massive decisions and those are head-scratchers.
“We had kept them down to minimal chances, certainly before the penalty. Our gameplan when going down to ten men was working, we quelled the game. Then that big decision (over Konate) changed the game for them, they knew they got away with one.”