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Graeme Souness and Jamie Carragher had a heated debate over Jordan Pickford’s reckless challenge to Virgil van Dijk with the Liverpool defender ruled out for several months with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
The injury not only robs them of one of their most influential players for most of the Premier League title defense, it also leaves Liverpool with just two senior center-backs in Joel Matip, who has been plagued with nagging injuries himself. himself, and Joe. Gomez.
Jurgen Klopp chose not to replace Dejan Lovren when he left for Zenit St. Petersburg in the summer and was content to gamble on using midfielder Fabinho as cover.
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The damage suffered in his confrontation with Pickford, so the Everton goalkeeper escaped punishment because VAR official David Coote missed the inning after missing the Holland captain’s offside in preparation means that Van Dijk will have to have surgery.
The incident sparked controversy in the Sky sports He studied with Souness calling Pickford’s challenge an “assault” as Carragher reminded the former Liverpool midfielder of his tough tackle.
Souness said: “It’s outrageous. It’s one that, to me as a former player, is ‘Wow!’, And I’m not even thinking offside. But how these people who make these decisions in Stockley Park can look at that and think, ‘That’s offside’, I just don’t get it. They just don’t know what they’re talking about, they don’t know.
“I was at Stockley Park over a year ago and it is almost impossible to make a mistake with the technology they have, the time they give, it is almost impossible and they can still get it wrong. That was an assault, that was not an entry. That was an assault. “
To which Carragher replied: “Listen, I reiterate what the guys are saying there and a great thing for me now is that when we go to the big games, we always demand the best referee and Michael Oliver is the best referee. Now I wonder if he would rather have the best referee in Stockley Park than on the field.
“Because these are decisions that the parties are really deciding. Of course I’m going to say what everyone has said, of course it should have been a red card for Jordan Pickford, it was a terrible tackle.
“But there will be a lot of frustration now on the Liverpool field, from Liverpool supporters, maybe other people and neutrals who want Jordan Pickford banned: ‘This is a terrible tackle, this is this, this is that! ‘
“We have to be careful with that and I’m going to defend Jordan Pickford on that. Yes, it was a terrible tackle, they broke my leg, I almost broke Nani’s leg… these things happen unfortunately in football.
“I don’t think anybody goes out of their way to deliberately hurt someone. With my hand on my heart, I believe that 99 percent of professional footballers will not try to hurt anyone. Jordan Pickford is all over the place with his game right now, he comes out and makes a crazy decision like he has been doing for the last 12 months and very very unfortunately one of the best players in the Premier League is obviously on a bad track.
“I hope and really believe that this will be the case, Jordan Pickford will not be in a good place tonight and I hope he is not in some way. I always remember when I did that poor challenge to Nani, fortunately nothing happened to her.
“We beat Manchester United that day, but I came home that night and it was all I could think of. I didn’t want to be associated with someone who ended another footballer’s career.
“It’s really serious and we all feel sorry for Van Dijk, but Pickford has made a bad decision and a bad challenge, but I think it should definitely be the end. We’re talking maybe hindsight, looking back, lynching mobs in the back … these things unfortunately happen in football. “
Souness responded: “But it is the bigger picture that we are talking about. The referees are there to protect the players. “
Carragher replied, “Oh, Graeme, the tackles you made!”
Souness: “Different generation”.
Carragher: “Oh, behave yourself, Graeme!”
Souness continued, “What did I say is wrong? I say they are there to protect the players. I agree with you that Jordan Pickford didn’t come out to hurt Van Dijk, but my point is that if a referee is on the court and he doesn’t see anything wrong with that, then he goes back to Stockley Park and they still don’t see anything.
“That’s where it is wrong. There have been nothing but complaints and grievances about the VAR. VAR is a tool that is there to help umpires make fewer mistakes. What VAR has really done to umpires is embarrass them because they are making mistake after mistake after mistake.
And this is, after all, technology. But I go back to my first thing and I’m mad that a referee can see that Jordan Pickford challenge and all he wants to talk about is offside. That becomes absolutely secondary.
“Anyone who understands football will tell you it was reckless. And I don’t want to blame Jordan Pickford because I think he’s come out, he’s just tried to get big and thrown in Virgil. I don’t think she meant to hurt him seriously.
“But if a referee can look at all of that, that ten-second sequence and say, ‘He’s offside and that’s all I want to talk about,’ that’s what I’m talking about, Jamie. That’s the problem. If that is what the referee sees, that is the problem ”.
Carragher concluded: “Hey, I think something in the future, and I think the official involved was David Coote, I have said from day one that the VAR people have a problem with authority.
“Michael Oliver is the best referee in the Premier League, I’m going to go in and say that he hasn’t seen anything. Isn’t there something in the game where people talk about the involvement of ex-professionals? I’m not really sure why it wouldn’t work. People would have loyalties to different teams and all that.
But in terms of umpires, I’m not sure what the exact age they have to retire is, umpires have been umpires for 20-30 years, they have that experience and they don’t feel inferior to Michael Oliver. They have had that experience and they have been the best referees, seat them there!
“They have that experience, they can probably make more important decisions than maybe the officials who are in the VAR at the moment because, most of the time, the best referees will be on the field.”
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