According to Stephen Warnock, it was a bad decision for a big star like him.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ Ref Watch on Monday (23 October, 11:32am), the pundit said it is beyond him how the French international didn’t receive a second yellow for a foul on Beto in the second half.
He questioned why the 25-year-old Portuguese forward would go down in that situation as he would have been one-on-one had the 24-year-old centre-back not committed a “cynical foul”.
“The big thing for me here is that we always talk about body language,” said Warnock. “Konate straight away ‘I haven’t touched him’, well you have and you know you have, and that’s why you’ve come out straight away and tried to deflect it.
“But the other thing is, why’s Beto going down? He’s actually into the Liverpool half and he’s going to go in on a one-on-one, there’s no reason for Beto to go down at all. It was such a cynical foul, I mean how it’s not a yellow card is beyond me. It’s a terrible decision
There isn’t anything about the whole situation that makes any sense whatsoever as Konate was very fortunate to not be sent off in the second half.
As Warnock points out, Beto could have gone through on goal if he hadn’t been brought down, so there’s no way it shouldn’t have been a second yellow card.
The fact the former Liverpool defender was so enraged by the decision just shows how shocking it was and that there is no real doubt that it was the wrong call.
It potentially had a major impact on the game as it was 0-0 and the Toffees were down to 10 men at that point following the sending off of Ashley Young in the first half.
It just feels like these big decisions are getting the better of the referees at this moment in time, but it can’t afford to happen at this level and it must improve before long
