After Liverpool’s 2-1 victory over Newcastle, analysts Micah Richards and Gary Lineker discussed the key decisions.
During Liverpool’s 2-1 victory against Newcastle, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer maintained their’spat’ about a number of officiating decisions.
After Lineker expressed disbelief over Virgil van Dijk’s dismissal during the first half of the match at St James’ Park, the two former strikers clashed on social media. Shearer responded by telling Lineker to “get to Specsavers” after he described the judgment as “very harsh”.
Van Dijk’s dismissal sparked a lot of discussion. Jamie Carragher argued on Sky that it wasn’t apparent whether Alexander Isak was denied a chance to score, while Gary Neville failed to win over Liverpool supporters with his analysis of the situation as it happened.
On their brand-new podcast, Rest is Football, Shearer and Lineker recapped their conversation about the incident with Micah Richards. Both guys remained steadfast in their opinions about what happened.
Richards said that, if he had been reporting on the incident live, he “would have gotten the sack” because of how many times he had changed his position.
This is the translation:
Lineker: “We had a small argument and some lighthearted fun on Twitter, didn’t we? because I gave it some thought. Van Dijk cleared the ball and may have touched the man briefly while moving, but he wasn’t hasty and didn’t slide in. He just stood there and casually removed the ball from him, in my opinion. But you immediately returned and attacked me.
Shearer: “I simply believe the referee made some serious mistakes. He ought to have flagged Trent Alexander-Arnold for a foul.
Do you believe that the initial flinging away of the ball merited a caution? He only under-armed the ball by around five yards; he didn’t toss it away. That was a pitiful yellow card, in my opinion.
It is stated in the game’s rules, Shearer said. Everyone is aware of that. It’s been done before. Clearly a red card, the VVD. He obviously eliminated Isak because of his improper positioning. Clearly exhausted him. He then grabbed possession of the ball. That was correctly called by the referee. They probably don’t appeal if the judgement was so awful because they have no chance of succeeding. The choice was the right one. Liverpool really played superior defense without him on the field.
