Jimmy
Floyd Hasselbaink believes Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita should have been
sent off during the Carabao Cup final for his "dangerous" challenge on
Chelsea's Trevoh Chalobah.
Chalobah revealed the tackle left him needing stitches in his leg and
questioned the decision of referee Stuart Attwell to not award a free-kick
or a card before VAR Darren England also dismissed the incident.
Keita - only playing because of a late injury to Thiago - caught the Chelsea
defender with his studs high on the leg as they stretched to meet a loose
ball midway through the second half of the thrilling Wembley showdown.
Attwell played advantage to Liverpool at the time and neither he nor the VAR
saw fit to punish Keita, much to the amazement of Chalobah, who tweeted
afterwards: "Had to get stitches because of this. Referee is right there I
don't get it?"
The centre-back went on to play the entire 120 minutes and scored his
penalty in the shootout which Liverpool eventually won 11-10.
The potentially game-changing decision incensed former Chelsea striker
Hasselbaink, who praised Attwell for his overall performance, but felt the
referee and VAR should have reduced Liverpool to 10 men.
"I'm surprised that nothing was said about it," he said. "If you look at
Keita's movement, he slows down and then he goes for the tackle but totally
misses the ball and he hits the player really hard.
"For me, that is endangering the opposition and that should be a red card. I
don't understand that the referee didn't see it and I don't understand at
all that VAR hasn't seen it because this is a really bad foul. I'm very,
very, very surprised.
"He knows what he's doing because he doesn't get injured, but he stays on
the floor like he is hit. He knows 'oh, I might be wrong here, I might be
late'. He is significantly late. I don't want to see players being sent off
- it would have spoiled the game - but this is a really bad tackle.
"I think he refereed the game really well. He let it flow, the game was
really good. I think there were no really bad tackles, apart from that one.
Chalobah was really lucky to be able to play on. It was very dangerous.
"I clocked it straight away and I said 'VAR is going to give a red card'. I
was amazed that they didn't do anything. Maybe they were thinking it's going
to spoil the final and you don't want to see that, but sorry, the tackle was
just not right."
Redknapp: 'The more I see it the worse it
gets'
Jamie Redknapp and Jamie Carragher both initially thought Attwell and VAR
had made the right decision, but changed their minds after reviewing replays
during the post-match analysis.
"At the time I disagreed with you, but the more I see it the worse it gets,"
said former Liverpool midfielder Redknapp. "What Keita does is I would call
it the old fashioned… midfield players used to do it, as they're running
towards the ball they slow down. Keita, just before he gets to it, he slows
himself down, he makes sure he's not going to get hurt, and he definitely
puts his foot into his groin area. I think he's really, really lucky."
Liverpool legend Carragher added: "When it initially happened, I thought the
two of them had gone for it and completely missed the ball, that's why I
thought the referee let the game go on.
"Chalobah gets a slight touch which in some ways makes it worse. The longer
you look at it, it's not a great challenge. Slow motion looks worse, but it
doesn't look great."
Sky Sports' Paul Merson was also surprised no action was taken. He said: "It
wasn't great. He does follow through and he catches him badly. He's caught
him high, so he could have been sent off. Who's sitting up there in that
VAR, seriously? They look at what they want to look at."
Ref Watch: Dermot Gallagher says Keita
tackle deserved yellow
Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher praised Attwell's performance
but believed the match should have been halted immediately following the
Keita tackle and the Liverpool man shown a yellow card.
He said: "I thought he (Attwell) dealt with it really well. Both players
were challenging high. That was the one decision I thought, 'I wonder if
he'll regret that?' I think he should have gone back and yellow carded him.
"I don't think it was malicious challenge, I don't think it was a brutal
challenge. Both players were as high as each other. Probably the wisest
decision was to stop play immediately but he didn't, that was his choice,
that's how he refereed and as I say, I thought he refereed it brilliantly."
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