The assistant referee who appeared to throw an elbow at Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson has been punished enough, according to the head of a referees’ charity.
Martin Cassidy, the chief executive officer of Ref Support UK, believes the incident on Sunday at Anfield, where Constantine Hatzidakis raised his arm to the face of the Liverpool defender, has been blown out of proportion amid calls for the match official to be banned, or for his career to be put in jeopardy. Hatzidakis has even been doorstepped outside his London home. He told one reporter: “Whatever happens, happens. There is nothing more I can say at the moment. I can’t talk about what happened.”
Hatzidakis has been stood down from games while the English Football Association conducts an investigation into the incident. The Professional Game Match Officials Limited group (PGMOL) has also started its own investigation.
“It has been blown a little bit out of proportion,” Cassidy said. “We should never advocate violence or match officials hitting anyone but it genuinely looks like Andy Robertson grabs him and Con pushes him to get off. They haven’t suspended Andy Robertson. It is a little bit of an overreaction.”
Cassidy believes Hatzidakis has been prejudged and punished by being removed from this weekend’s fixtures. Cassidy, who has called for an exclusion zone around officials to be introduced, said: “Eric Cantona jumped into the crowd and kicked somebody and still came back and scored in an FA Cup final. Why should we treat match officials any different? Yes, we are the guardians of standards and they look on us more strictly but that isn’t a free for all.
📌 "It looks like assault."
📌 'Any different to Mitrovic?'Ref Watch analyse the incident where an assistant referee is accused of elbowing Andy Robertson. ⭕ pic.twitter.com/VWqFQ0iHgj
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) April 10, 2023
“No, his career is not over. He will learn from it. What has happened to Con already, the fact he looks like he has been proven guilty and taken off games, I think that is enough.”
Meanwhile, the referee Michael Salisbury has been dropped for the next round of Premier League fixtures having failed to award Brighton a penalty in their defeat by Tottenham on Saturday. Salisbury was the VAR official who did not intervene when the referee Stuart Attwell missed a foul by Pierre‑Emile Højbjerg on Kaoru Mitoma inside the area.
The PGMOL head, Howard Webb, apologised to Brighton for the mistake. But while Salisbury has been dropped Attwell has been named VAR official for Wolves versus Brentford on Saturday and fourth official for West Ham versus Arsenal on Sunday. – Guardian
Thiago Alcantara admits Darwin Nunez ‘jealousy’ as new Liverpool midfield role explained
Among the many positives for Liverpool during a stirring second-half revival on Sunday, it was in danger of slipping under the radar.
But the return of Thiago Alcantara could yet play a pivotal role as Jurgen Klopp’s side attempt to salvage some reward from a tortuous campaign.
Thiago was forced to watch from the sidelines as Liverpool slumped out of the Champions League in disappointing fashion against Real Madrid last month before seeing their hopes of qualification for the competition next season effectively ended by a poor run of Premier League form.
The Spaniard had missed 10 games with a hip injury suffered having assumed the mantle as the Reds’ senior midfielder in the New Year with both Jordan Henderson and Fabinho dropped after respective dismal periods of form.
Having started 10 successive games following the World Cup – his longest such run since arriving at Anfield in September 2020 – Thiago had ultimately gone to the well one time too many.
Now, though, he returns to a Liverpool engine room that, while in a constant state of flux this season, has sorely missed the calming influence and ability to dictate play that have been Thiago’s characteristics throughout a career in which he has shone for Barcelona, Bayern Munich and the Spain national team.
Not that the midfielder isn’t envious of the attributes of some of his more energetic team-mates – including one whose game perhaps couldn’t be any further removed from the elegant Spaniard.
“When you are into the game, when you are living the game, you just react,” says Thiago. “You cannot think too much, but running is not my thing. My thing is about making the team play slow or fast when we have to.
“For the best players in the world – and I don’t have this – it is about trying to score 40 goals a season. I say to Darwin (Nunez), I never have had the feeling in my life to shoot the ball 30 metres in front of me and say I will win this race to get it. I feel jealous sometimes of that, for sure. But this is life, we always want what we don’t have.”
While hardly a stellar season for either player or team, Liverpool nevertheless have a greater win percentage with Thiago, winning half of the 22 games in which he has started compared to just 38% in the 21 he hasn’t, Sunday one of only three times the Spaniard has emerged from the bench.
And, speaking to Walk On magazine, Thiago explained the use of one of his trademark moves – the no-look pass.
“It is a way to trick the other guys (opponents) so I can get the ball to my team-mates in a better position,” he says. “You have to look at the ball to see whether it is close enough to make a proper pass. You also have to take a look before and if you see a body moving (in your peripheral vision) you can say ‘okay, I will do this pass’ because you’ve seen him (team-mate), you know exactly where he is. Then, for the no-look pass, you have to avoid putting your body or eyes where you want to put the ball.
“The speed (of the pass) and knowing how the player will behave when he receives the ball allows you to decide if you give it to him. I prefer to give the ball to players on the run than to a player’s feet because it will be better on the run.”
Having turned 32 on Tuesday, Thiago is approaching the veteran stage of his glittering career. And while the days are ticking down to Liverpool’s long-awaited and necessary engine room revamp this summer, the Spaniard – who still has more than a year to run on his contract – could soon be primed for his next task of helping usher through the Reds’ next midfield generation.