Dermot Gallagher believes that one player got ‘really lucky’ with a refereeing decision during Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Ipswich on Saturday.
During the goalless first half, Wes Burns was already on a yellow card when he contested possession with Diogo Jota, impeding the Reds forward before going to ground and swatting the ball away with his arm while the play was in progress.
Arne Slot and the LFC coaching staff screamed for another booking to be administered by Tim Robinson, believing it to be a deliberate handball, but the 29-year-old escaped further punishment.
Follow Empire of the Kop on Instagram (@empireofthekop) HERE
Speaking on Sky Sports‘ Ref Watch on Monday, Gallagher felt that the Ipswich player was fortunate not to receive his marching orders over the incident.
The former top-flight official said: “I do think it’s a handball, he’s really lucky. He quite clearly swipes at the ball. He also gets lucky because he’s not stopping a promising attack as another Ipswich player is coming across. The covering player saves him from getting a yellow card.”
READ MORE: (Video) Liverpool fans will adore classy Wataru Endo gesture to two teammates on Saturday
Slot was seen making a few enquiries to fourth official Keith Stroud as the teams made their way towards the dressing rooms at half-time, and we can probably assume that it was in relation to the Burns incident.
TNT Sports pundit Peter Crouch also argued that the Ipswich forward would definitely have been booked in that instance if he weren’t on a yellow card already, a scenario which can often play on a referee’s mind.
Although we wouldn’t like to see players being harshly dismissed for trivial second bookings, what happened in the 40th minute at Portman Road didn’t fall into that category.
Whatever about impeding Jota, Burns knew full well what he was doing by swatting the ball away with his arm, and he can indeed count himself fortunate not to have been sent for an early bath by Robinson.
Thankfully it didn’t matter in the overall scheme of things as Liverpool eventually triumphed with a degree of comfort, but had it been a draw or a one-goal home win, Slot would surely have had legitimate grounds for complaint afterwards.
EOTK Close-up with John Welsh: ‘a local lad who lived his dream’ and Slot’s LFC predictions
