Jack Grealish cut a frustrated figure after his Everton side ended the Merseyside derby vs Liverpool on the losing side. The Manchester City loanee aired his disappointment in several referee decisions during his TNT Sports post-match interview.
The England international continued his impressive form since swapping the Etihad for the Hill Dickinson Stadium this summer. A well-contested battle with Liverpool full-back Conor Bradley saw Grealish get into several promising positions.
This was shown by his contribution to Idrissa Gana Gueye’s consolation goal in the second period as his cross found Iliman Ndiaye at the far post, who cushioned it back for Gueye to smash past Alisson. His efforts were in vain, however, as well-worked goals from Ryan Gravenberch and Hugo Ekitike were enough to put the league leaders out of touching distance.
Grealish Left Baffled by Referee Performance
As the Anfield faithful collectively sighed a breath of relief upon the full-time whistle, Grealish and David Moyes made a beeline for referee Darren England. Furiously confronting the official, both player and boss put their points across about decisions they felt unfairly went against the visitors.
Speaking to TNT Sport after the match, Grealish gave an insight into where his frustrations stemmed from. He vented about the call to show midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall a yellow card for attempting to take a quick free-kick before claiming his side weren’t given some decisions Liverpool were. He said:
“I’ve never seen a player in my whole life get booked for taking a quick free-kick. I don’t know where that rule’s come from.
“Even the stoppage time, I think it was three minutes and one minute. Like, come on, I’ve never seen that in the Premier League in the last two or three years.”
Asked further if there were general frustrations with the referee’s performance, Grealish added: “Of course, I get that sometimes you want to let the game go; I completely get that. But then, you can’t not give something to us and then, two seconds later, one of their defenders gets touched in the back and goes down and he gives it [a foul].”
As the yellow card was shown to Dewsbury-Hall, TNT Sports commentator Ally McCoist let everyone know what he thought of the bizarre call. He said: “It’s nonsense, I mean it is just. They will say that is the rule, but how about a bit of common sense?”