It has taken long enough, but PGMOL chief Howard Webb has finally said James Tarkwoski was lucky to avoid a red card for a shocking tackle on Alexis Mac Allister.
The Argentine was on the receiving end of a terrible challenge in Liverpool’s 1-0 win at home to Everton on April 2.
Somehow, Tarwowski only received a yellow card, despite clearly going through Mac Allister and risking breaking his leg.
Speaking on Match Officials Mic’d Up, Webb has now finally admitted the decision was incorrect.
“It’s a red card challenge, it’s an error on the part of the match officials not to send James Tarkowski off,” Webb said.
“The referee recognises on the field that Tarkowski plays the ball and the way he does so is reckless. The VAR then checks that on-field decision of a yellow card – and puts too much focus on the fact that Tarkowski plays the ball.
“You hear him talking about where else his foot can go – but Tarkowski makes the choice to play the ball in that way.
“When are you clearing or playing the ball close to an opponent, you have to think about the opponent and the way you’re going to go into that challenge, thinking about the safety of the opponent.
“He lunges towards Mac Allister in the way that he does and you see the contact – it’s excessive force and it endangers the safety of the opponent and it should be a red-card offence.”
The episode also reveals what Paul Tierney said in the VAR booth, as he discussed the decision with referee Sam Barrott.
“So he wins all the ball, there is contact on the calf. It’s hard for his foot to go anywhere else,” Tierney claimed.
“There’s no secondary movement and he [Barrott] has cautioned him. I think it’s referee’s call.”
While Barrott’s on-field decision was arguably excusable, given the frenetic nature of a Merseyside derby, quite how Tierney couldn’t see it was a red card is staggering.
Referees so often stick together, not wanting to call out bad decisions, so for Webb to openly admit it was wrong says a lot.
Thankfully, it didn’t hamper Liverpool’s Premier League title charge and Mac Allister was relatively unscathed, but it was the latest example of the hapless officiating in this country.
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